Migration narratives and media framing: an input–processing–response perspective of media–audience associations

Contu, Giulia;Massidda, Carla;Mola, Francesco;Ortu, Marco

;Tunis, Silvio

2026-01-01

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Abstract

This study examines how media narratives on immigration in Italy are associated with public discourse in social media comments using an input–processing–response (IPR) framework as an observational analytical design. In this setting, media outlet posts are treated as the inputs, comment threads as the observable responses, and audience cognition and interaction as an interpretive processing layer that is not directly measured. We analyze 708 Facebook posts and 166,760 associated comments published by 10 Italian media outlets. Methodologically, we combine Structural Topic Modeling, Fightin’ Words, regularized association analysis, and sentiment/emotion indicators to examine how post-side narratives are linked to structured response patterns in comment threads. We find systematic variation in outlet framing, ranging from humanitarian to security emphases, while comment threads exhibit greater thematic dispersion and stronger lexical divergence than outlet posts. Regularized models further show that specific post topics, including humanitarian and migration-management themes, are associated with distinct comment-topic mixtures and shifts in lexical salience. Sentiment and hate-related indicators also vary across outlets and topics, with more negative and hostile aggregate response patterns observed around humanitarian and migration-management themes; these indicators are interpreted at the aggregate level only. Taken together, the findings show how media narratives are associated with differentiated audience response structures within an observational IPR framework, with implications for media regulation, platform governance, and media literacy.