Tom Huang Whats missing in our coverage are the everyday acts and opinions quirks and foibles that make Asians individuals that make them human Minorities in the News Whats Missing ID: 782908
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Slide1
Assessing
Diversity
in News
Slide2Tom Huang: “What’s missing in our coverage are the everyday acts and opinions, quirks and foibles, that make Asians individuals, that make them human.”
Minorities in the News: What’s Missing
Slide3Minorities in the News: What’s Missing?
John B. Russwurm and Samuel E.
Cornish,
1827
Slide4Minorities in the News: What’s Missing?
“Too long has the publick been deceived by misrepresentations, in things which concern us deeply, though in the estimation of some mere trifles; for although there are many in society who exercise toward us benevolent feelings; still there are others who
enlarge upon the least trifle
, which tends to the discredit of any person of color; and produce anathemas and
denounce our whole body for the misconduct of this guilty one
.”
“From the press and from the pulpit we have suffered much by being incorrectly represented. Men
, whom we equally love and admire, have not hesitated to represent us disadvantageously,
without becoming personally acquainted with the true state of things
, nor
discerning between virtue and vice
among us. …
Our vices and our degradations are ever arrayed against us, but our virtues are passed by unnoticed
.”
Slide5Minorities in the News: What’s Missing?
Kerner Commission, 1968
“The media report and write from the standpoint of a white man’s world. The ills of the the ghetto, the difficulties of life there, the Negro’s burning sense of grievance, are seldom conveyed.”
Quoting a black citizen: “[T]he average black person couldn’t give less of a damn about what the media say. The intelligent black person is resentful at what he considers to be a totally
false
portrayal of what goes on in the ghetto.”
Slide6Minorities in the News: What’s Missing?
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 2010
Coverage of Blacks is Too Negative
Coverage of Blacks is Generally Fair
Blacks
58%
28%
Whites
31%
60%
1005 adults surveyed August 12-15, 2010
Slide7Minorities in the News: What’s Missing?
UNITY, survey of members, 2010
95% believed MSM inadequately covered race & race relations
14% believed their producers and editors were knowledgeable about race
14% believed MSM had helped improved race relations
Slide8What does research tell us?
Patterns of coverage
Recent examples
Proposed solutions
Slide9Amount of Coverage
Coverage of blacks between 1950 and 1980
New York Times, Atlanta Constitution, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune
Increased coverage in each succeeding decade
Never more than 4% of news hole
(Carolyn Martindale, “Significant Silences: Newspaper Coverage of Problems Facing Black Americans.”
Newspaper Research Journal
15, no. 2 (1990): 102-115.)
Slide10Amount of Coverage
Coverage of Latinos on network TV news, 2002
ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC aired 728 primetime hours of news
5.68 hours (.78%) devoted to Latino-related issues; 120 stories
(Serafin Méndez-Méndez and Diane Alverio, “The Portrayal of Latinos in Network Television News, 2002,” National Association of Hispanic Journalists.)
Slide11What’s News?
Crime
Of 120 stories about
Latinos
:
39% crime
18% terrorism
9% illegal immigration
Slide12What’s News?
Crime
Local TV news coverage of race at 26 stations in 12 cities, 2003 (596 stories)
Leading topic: crime (22% of all stories)
(
Poindexter, Paula M., Laura Smith & Don Heider. “Race and Ethnicity in Local Television News: Framing, Story Assignment and Source Selections.”
Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
, 47, no. 4 (2003): 524-536.)
Crime focus
Stories feature blacks
69%
Stories feature whites
28%
Slide13Crime in News vs. Crime Statistics
200 local TV news stories about crime, Los Angeles, 2006
(Travis Dixon and Cristina Azocar, “The Representation of Juvenile Offenders by Race on Los Angeles Area Television News,”
Howard Journal of Communication
17, 2006, 143-161.)
Arrest Rate
TV Perpetrator
Difference
Black
18%
39%
+21
White
22%24%
+2
Latino
53%
29%
-18
Other
7%
8%
+1
Slide14Crime in News vs. Crime Statistics
185 Network News Stories: Missing Children, 2005-07
(Seong-Jae Min and John Feaster, “Missing Children in National News Coverage: Racial and Gender Representation of Missing Children Cases,”
Communication Research Reports
, 27(3): 207-216.)
FBI Data
TV News
Difference
Black
Children
33.2%
19.5%
-13.7%Non-Black Children66.8%80.5%
+13.7%
Slide15Sourcing Patterns
596 Local TV news stories at 26 stations in 12 cities, 2003
(
Poindexter, Paula M., Laura Smith & Don Heider. “Race and Ethnicity in Local Television News: Framing, Story Assignment and Source Selections.”
Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
, 47, no. 4 (2003): 524-536.)
Order of Appearance in Stories
First
Second
Third
Fourth
White
84%
79%
75%
85%
Black
12%
18%
21%
12%
Latino
2%
2%
2%
0%
Other
2%
2%
1%
0%
Slide16Sourcing Patterns
Network TV News,
2008
75% of white reporters’ sources were white
50
% of minority reporters’ sources were minorities
Presidential
Campaign Coverage, 2004
White reporters used minority sources in 5% of their stories
Minority reporters used minority sources in 15% of their stories
(Lynn C. Owens, “Network News: The Role of Race in Source Selection and Story Type.”
Howard Journal of Communication
19, no. 4 (2008): 355-370.)
(Geri Alumit Zeldes and Fred Fico, “Broadcast and Cable News Network Differences in the Way Reporters Used Women and Minority Group Sources to Cover the 2004 Presidential Election,”
Mass Communication and Society
, 13: 512-527, 2010.)
Slide17Sourcing
Patterns
104 Looting Scenes on Network News, Hurricane
Katrina
(Kirk Johnson, Mark Dolan and John Sonnett, “Speaking of Looting: An Analysis of Racial Propaganda in National Television Coverage of Hurricane Katrina,”
Howard Journal of Communication
, 22:302-318, 2011.)
Actors
Speakers
Black
Slide18Words
& Images
Slide19Words
& Images
Slide20Words
& Images
Slide21Slide22Summary
Amount of coverage of minorities is small
Somewhat disproportionate attention to crime
Missing white children newsworthy
Whites tend to dominate as sources
White reporters tend to have white Rolodexes
Careless word choices and labeling may offend
Slide23Proposed Solutions
Diversify the Newsroom
Mixed evidence of effectiveness
Diversity viewed as a “cost center”
Slide24Proposed Solutions
Community Outreach
Total Community Coverage
Race and Media Forums
Slide25Proposed Solutions
Content Auditing
Self-monitoring tools
Slide26Slide27Slide28Slide29Slide30Slide31