This thesis seeks to investigate young immigrants and ethnic minorities' (IEM) perceptions of media portrayals of their cultural groups, with a focus on IEM's understandings regarding the construction of cultural identity in their context in Barcelona. Further, it intends to examine the ways in which young IEM, both as consumers and as producers of media texts, use digital media and media literacy to contest stereotyped portrayals of cultural groups and to construct cultural identities in their own terms.

The relationship between media, representation and identity is explored through an examination of the theoretical body of work on identity politics, and of previous empirical studies focusing specifically on the portrayal of IEM in the media, at both the transnational and Spanish levels. Additionally, special attention is given to media discourses regarding multiculturalism and the multicultural society, with the aim of examining participants' positions towards cultural and identity politics. Approaches to audience studies, in terms of to what audiences do with media rather than what media do to audiences, are examined and evaluated with regards to their relevance to this study.

A discussion of critical methodologies involving ethnographic and visual methods within social research, introduces the research activities carried out as part of this study. A paradigm based on the assumption of a universal capacity for language and communication informs this study's methodological choices and eliminates the hierarchy between 'researcher' and 'researched', as both are seen as participants in a mutual learning process.

A total of sixteen young people (18-33 years old) from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, living in Barcelona between 2006 and 2008, participated in this study. They were part of a natural group of media-makers in an ongoing artistic and intercultural project called 'Roots and Routes', which was the inspiration for this thesis title. Seven audio-visual texts produced by the participants were analysed, together with accompanying reflective commentaries, interviews and life narratives.

The analysis reveals that young IEM are fully aware of the negative portrayals in the media of cultural groups, and articulately identify consequences for their daily lives. The study highlights the double hazard for IEM of mainstream media constructions of cultural identity, as participants cannot escape the identities imposed on them, and at the same time they are forced to constantly prove themselves to the locals. However, deeper analysis shows how IEM construct their own cultural and gendered identities in coming to terms with their 'routes' in an urban and intercultural context, rather than falling back on their 'roots', despite attempts by media discourses to focus attention on cultural differences in terms of origin, ethnicity, nationality or religion.

Additionally, the study illustrates how IEM are able to break the 'circle of representation' by creating alternative imagery and distributing it by means of online social networks, the pitfalls of the so-called 'social web' notwithstanding.

NOTA IMPORTANT: Aquesta tesi doctoral es troba acollida a la Llicència Creative Commons "BY-NC-ND" (Reconeixement - NoComercial - Sense Obra Derivada). Per tant, no es permet un us comercial de l'obra original ni la generació d'obres derivades". Vegeu més detalls sobre el particular a:
http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/