Assessing Diversity in News. Tom Huang: Whats missing in our coverage are the everyday acts and opinions, quirks and foibles, that make Asians individuals,

Assessing Diversity in News

Tom 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

Minorities in the News: What’s Missing?

John B. Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish, 1827

Minorities 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.”

Minorities 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.”

Minorities 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

Minorities 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

What does research tell us?

Patterns of coverage

Recent examples

Proposed solutions

Amount 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.)

Amount 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.)

728 Hours of News

Latino focusOther

What’s News?

Crime

Of 120 stories about Latinos:

• 39% crime

• 18% terrorism

• 9% illegal immigration

What’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%

Crime 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

Crime 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 Children 66.8% 80.5% +13.7%

Sourcing 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%

Sourcing 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.)

Sourcing 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 77 scenes74% of time

16 scenes15% of time

White 4 scenes4% of time

83 scenes80% of time

Words & Images

Words & Images

Words & Images

Summary

• 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

Proposed Solutions

Diversify the Newsroom

• Mixed evidence of effectiveness

• Diversity viewed as a “cost center”

Proposed Solutions

Community Outreach

• Total Community Coverage

• Race and Media Forums

Proposed Solutions

Content Auditing

• Self-monitoring tools