Proposition 187 on the California ballot in the recent election was produced by the initiative process and was offered as a way of solving a number of the state's ills by requiring that illegal immigrants be refused a variety of government services, such as access to educational programs, welfare, and medical benefits except for emergency medical care. The news media gave considerable space to this issue, especially a the election drew nearer, and a number of trends and attitudes can be discerned from an analysis of the news stories produced on this subject.
The news media treated the story of Proposition 187 very much as it treats all election news. There are certain repeated themes that shape such coverage. One theme is the horse-race theme, and stories under this heading considered which side was ahead in the polls as election day drew closer. There was little consideration of which side had more to offer or which side made the better argument. Rather, the emphasis was on which side had managed to convince more people that it was right. A second and related approach gathered steam during the latter days of the campaign, and this type of story considered more who was helped or hurt by association with Proposition 187. This approach developed after political leaders and others began taking sides on the issue so that they presumably would be affected by the stance they had taken. A third type of story presented the debate of the two opposing sides as to the importance of the legislation, its impact, and its larger symbolic meaning. This type of story included the growing protests over the issue by various groups in society, notably the Mexican-American community that would be most affected by its passage either because of illegals in that community or because of the fear that only people who looked or spoke a certain way would be asked for proof that they were citizens. A final type of story was the analysis by the news or...