[Peace-discuss] Re: [Discuss] [Peace] CNN Coverage on Being Black in America

Fri Jul 25 13:16:47 CDT 2008

And here's some research to consider along with it ...

Negative perception of blacks rises with more news
watching, studies say
7/17/08  UI
News
Craig Chamberlain, Social Sciences Editor
217-333-2894; cdchambe at illinois.edu
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Watching the news
should make you more informed, but it also may be making you more likely to
stereotype, says a University of Illinois researcher.

In a pair of recently published studies, communication professor Travis Dixon
found that the more people watched either local or network news, the more
likely they were to draw on negative stereotypes about blacks.

Significantly, the effect was independent of viewers’ existing racial
attitudes, Dixon said. “We’ve shown that just watching the news – just news consumption alone –
has an impact on one’s stereotypical conceptions,” he said.

In other words, even among those who may think of themselves as largely
prejudice-free, those who watch more local or network news are prone to more
often see blacks as intimidating, violent or poor, Dixon said.

The studies were published in successive March and June issues of the Journal
of Communication. Each was based on data collected in a telephone survey of 506 Los Angeles County residents conducted from November
2002 through January 2003.

In related research, Dixon also is working on studies about stereotyping in the news coverage of Hurricane
Katrina and of terrorism.

The study on local news, published in the March issue, built on prior research
in several cities – Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles among them – showing
local TV news, particularly crime news, as almost always “racialized” in its
portrayal of blacks and often other groups, Dixon said. One of the Los Angeles studies, conducted in the mid- to late 1990s,
was led by Dixon,
and analyzed the news content of individual stations.

In all of the analyses, Dixon said, blacks are overrepresented as perpetrators, whites are overrepresented as
victims, and black-on-white crime is overrepresented relative to crime within
racial groups. The overrepresentation is relative to police department crime
statistics, not population.

“All of these things are inconsistent with what’s really happening out there in
the quote-unquote real world,” Dixon said. “Some news reporters will say they’re holding up this mirror (to the real
world), but it’s a distorted mirror.”

Dixon, therefore, said he was not surprised by
his findings that those in Los Angeles who watched more local news were more likely to draw on negative stereotypes
about blacks. He even found that those who watched the stations that most
overrepresented blacks as perpetrators, based on his earlier analysis, were
more likely to use or believe those stereotypes.

(Dixon noted
that though his analysis of local news content was a decade old, he had seen
little evidence of significant change in the way those stations cover the
news.)

Dixon is
careful not to label either reporters or news consumers as inherently or
overtly prejudiced or racist. Instead, he talks about how stereotypes get
repeated and therefore reinforced in the mind, a process called “chronic
activation.” Those stereotypes then come more-readily to mind, consciously or
unconsciously, when seeing or interacting with a member of that group, a
process called “chronic accessibility.”

Through much local television news, “we keep seeing these black perpetrators
all the time, so that becomes more accessible and not other conceptions,” Dixon said. As a result,
any black male is more likely to be seen as potentially violent or a criminal,
he said.

What did surprise Dixon,
however, was seeing that network news broadcasts, not heavy on crime coverage,
had a similar effect on viewers and their tendency to “access” stereotypes. The
findings, which he found “disconcerting,” contradicted his assumption that
those who stayed well-informed through network news would be less prejudiced
and hold fewer stereotypes of blacks.

In trying to explain the connection, he believes part of it may be in the way
network news often “frames” an issue or topic, such as poverty or welfare, by
finding individuals to focus on.

In doing so, they often fall back on stereotypes, he said. “Network news is
more subtle, but it’s still there.”

In his survey, Dixon collected information on a number of factors that could
influence stereotypical beliefs other than news-watching – such as gender, age,
race, education, political ideology, income, racism, overall television
exposure, newspaper exposure, neighborhood diversity and the community’s crime
rate.

His conclusions about the effect of news-watching came after taking all those
factors into account through statistical analysis. “We found that more than a
quarter of stereotypical beliefs can be explained just by how much news you
watch,” he said. If one assumes that respondents may suppress their honest
feelings, given that the subject involves race, then the effect could be
assumed to be even larger, he said.

Researchers often are careful to note that survey results showing strong
associations between two factors – in this case, news-watching and
stereotypical belief – do not necessarily mean that one causes the other. Dixon suggests that there
may be a causal connection here, however, because his survey work builds on
previous experiment-based research with
college students, in which different groups were tested after watching
different versions of news broadcasts.

The prior research “makes us more confident that what’s happening here is
causal and not just correlational,” Dixon said.

“News viewers need to be empowered to know that media effects are real and that
they need to be more conscious of the potential effects,” Dixon said. “The fact is we still largely
live in a segregated society, so our perceptions of other groups largely come
through the media,” he said.

“Viewers need to take a little bit more of an active role in demanding better
coverage and turning off the tube when it’s not good.”

Editor’s
note:  To reach Travis Dizon, call
217-244-0104; email: tldixon at illinois.edu

----- Original Message ----
From: Barbara kessel <barkes at gmail.com>
To: Raymond Morales <rmorales02 at gmail.com>; CUCPJ <discuss at communitycourtwatch.org>
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 12:53:13 PM
Subject: Re: [Discuss] [Peace] CNN Coverage on Being Black in America

Here is something on Democracy Now today and tonight that would
interest those on this list who have access to that program (by
satellite TV, or radio or computer:

* Race, Politics and the Media: A Roundtable Discussion from the UNITY
Conference *

In Chicago, nearly 10,000 journalists of color are gathered for a convention
that brings together members of the National Association of Black
Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian
American Journalists Association and the Native American Journalists
Association. It's organized by UNITY, Journalists of Color, Inc. We host a
discussion with Democracy Now! co-host and former president of NAHJ, Juan
Gonzalez, and journalists Roberto Lovato and Amy Alexander.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/25/race_politics_and_the_media_a

On 7/25/08, Raymond Morales <rmorales02 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I do not believe that the lack of jobs creates an air of disinterest in
> academia or higher eduction, in general. Honestly, the poor are stifled by a
> lack of support and negative influences within and outside of the
> educational system. The system as a whole ignores their needs and exploits
> them for financial benefit. One of the best examples that comes to mind is
> how school systems go out and actively recruit the student/athlete (really
> entertainer/athlete) with money and time. And yet, they never seem to find
> enough black and brown people to fill the ranks of the graduate and
> professional programs. They blame the situation on "pipeline issues" to lack
> of funding without any true introspection.
>
> It is becoming painfully obvious that the people at the top need to
> re-examine their practices to sort out what works from the many lingering
> examples of old-school racism. Without that, the plantationomics of higher
> education will simply continue to churn out more slaves than scholars.
>
> And personally, I would much prefer to be well educated and broke then
> ignorant and well-fed.
>
> -Ray
>
> --
> THE SHOW
> Fridays @ 10 PM on 104.5 FM
> Mondays @ 11 PM on UPTV 6
>
> Free Speech Vs Hate Speech:
> http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xztr_PC--qE
>  Open Mic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOi3VDM4k6c
> _______________________________________________
>  Discuss mailing list
>  Discuss at lists.communitycourtwatch.org
> http://lists.communitycourtwatch.org/listinfo.cgi/discuss-communitycourtwatch.org
>
>
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