The migratory tragedy of sub-Saharans at the Melilla fence according to El País

Abstract

The present work is intended to be only a certain- and not exhaustive- approach to the clandestine migratory theme in the newspaper El País, whose repercussions are revealed in many areas related to Spanish society, especially in its press, generally considered 'the mirror' of the problems of the society in which it occurs. The objective of this article is to analyze the echoes of the event that has been violent, as well as the way in which the migratory problem is defined and treated in the discourse through the articles of El País about the events that occurred in Melilla of the emigrants, mostly sub-Saharans, who tried to cross the fence to the other shore of the Mediterranean, because it is considered the first mass entry in an orderly and simultaneous manner since the border closure in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, to carry out our study, we will proceed to apply critical discourse analysis, which serves as an appropriate method to study migratory movements in the media.