Award Date

1-1-2004

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Journalism and Media Studies

First Committee Member

Dolores Tanno

Number of Pages

115

Abstract

Between 1892 and 1954, more than 12 million immigrants arrived at Ellis Island's shores for the promise of a new beginning in America. During this period of immigrant influx and in the decades to follow, anti-immigrant sentiment remained at the forefront of the collective American conscious, varying in severity, though ever present. This study compares the relationship between the personal stories of immigrants and the print media's account of immigration in Ellis Island's peak year, 1907, in an attempt to understand how storytelling, as communication, helped shape the collective immigrant experience. It also examines how the relationship contributes to U.S. perceptions of immigrants. The study is informed by Walter Fisher's narrative paradigm theory and was accomplished through a qualitative narrative analysis of both immigrant related articles published in 1907 New York Times articles and the archival artifacts on record at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

Keywords

Ellis; Experience; Immigrant; Island; New York; Personal; Public; Representations

Controlled Subject

Mass media; Journalism; Communication

File Format

pdf

File Size

2928.64 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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