This study examines the images of transnational migrants represented in Taiwan's mainstream newspapers. By observing the various facets of coverage on transnational migrants with different national and ethnic backgrounds in news media, the study intends to discuss how Taiwan's society as a whole imagines foreigners coming from different regions of the world under the backdrop of increasing global migration. The study chose the online database of the four major newspapers-United Daily News, China Times, Liberty Times and Apple Daily News-as the main sources for datagathering. News contents regarding transnational migrants within five-year time span (2007-2011) were collected, and a random sample of 466 news segments was selected for content analysis. The content analysis yields several significant findings. First, the study found that the majority of migrant news appears on local sections, and the length of coverage is mainly less than 600 words. Second, some discrepancies concerning the ways of coverage toward different groups of transnational migrants in news theme, news section, length of coverage, news tendency and news source are identified. Last, news coverage emphasizes more on the inner traits than external features when describing group characteristics of transnational migrants, which bears positive meanings for enhancing the overall images of transnational migrants.

Transnational migrant international migration Foreigner Content analysis Media representation

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