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Race and News Revisited

The Content and Effects of Problematically Framing the News

Travis L. Dixon and Christopher S. Josey

Studying Race in the News

Scholars have been interested in the ways that persons of color have been portrayed in the mass media for much of the last century (Greenberg, Mastro, & Brand, 2002; Chapter 13, this volume). Early work focused on how persons of color, most often Blacks, were portrayed in entertainment media such as films and television. More recently, scholars also have turned their attention to detailing the ways in which race is framed by news organizations (Dixon & Azocar, 2006; Dixon & Linz, 2000a, 2000b, 2002; Entman, 1994, 1992; Entman & Rojecki, 2000; Gilliam & Iyengar, 2000, 1998; Josey, Dixon, Hurley, & Hefner, 2010; Romer, Jamieson, & de Coteau, 1998; Simon & Wright, 1996). News organizations are charged with accurately reporting events that happen across the globe. Thus news, because of its very nature, is crucial to study as consumers may interpret it as an accurate representation of reality. Research examining the portrayal of race in news content finds that persons of color are represented in highly stereotypic ways (Greenberg et al., 2002). Thus, it is likely that these problematic portrayals of persons of color may cultivate incorrect or stereotyped views of minorities for news viewers. These views, in turn, can have a multitude of deleterious real-world effects in the way individuals view and treat persons of color.

The title of this chapter is “Race and News Revisited.” In writing it we have two goals. First, we will synthesize prior research findings that detail the portrayal of race in news content and its possible effects. Second, we will explain how the changing nature of news content warrants revisiting prior research paradigms regarding race and news. To begin this chapter, we will consider the content analytic work that has been conducted in traditional media (e.g., print and television). We will then detail experimental findings from effects-based studies. Finally, we move beyond traditional media to consider emerging work in online news, pointing to areas for future research.

The Framing of Race in Traditional Media

Studies examining the framing of race in news programming have largely focused on television (Dixon, Azocar, & Casas, 2003). This is both intuitive and reasonable as most individuals relied on local and national news broadcasts as their primary information sources until recently (Josey et al., 2010). Initial studies in this area have primarily examined the portrayals of two minority groups: Blacks and Latinos (Dixon & Azocar, 2006; Dixon & Linz, 2000a, 2000b, 2002; Entman, 1992, 1994; Entman & Rojecki, 2000; Gilliam & Iyengar, 1998, 2000; Gilliam, Iyengar, Simon, & Wright, 1996; Romer et al., 1998). This is largely the case because Blacks and Latinos are seen with greater frequency in news coverage, while other groups remain virtually invisible (Josey et al., 2010). Further, as Blacks and Latinos represent the two largest minority groups in the United States, it is only natural that a great deal of empirical focus has been devoted to representations of them as racial groups. Thus findings for Blacks and Latinos are generally much more robust than those for other racial groups such as Native Americans, Arabs, and Asians (Heider, 2000; Josey et al., 2010; Merskin, 1998; Oswald, 2005; Person & Musher-Eizenman, 2005). We begin by reviewing content analytic findings about the portrayal of Blacks and Latinos in traditional media.

Content Studies of Local News Programming

One of the first and most notable series of investigations was undertaken by Robert Entman and his colleagues, who performed a quantitative content analysis of 55 days of local television news in Chicago to determine if there were any systematic differences in the portrayal of Black and White suspects. Entman (1990, 1992) found that Black men accused of a crime were much more likely than similarly accused White suspects to be shown in the grip of a restraining police officer. Thus traditional news media portray Black men as needing restraint, requiring state intervention, and, consequently, as predators to be feared. Entman also found that Black men accused of committing a crime were less likely than White suspects to be identified by name in news stories. Entman interpreted such differences as evidence that when Black and White suspects are accused of similarly serious offenses, Black suspects appear to be treated in a more “dehumanized” manner. Whereas White suspects have individuating names, Black suspects are anonymous and members of a racial out-group. This is part of a long-standing narrative claiming that Black men are criminals. Moreover, Entman maintained that those Black suspects who were most dehumanized were portrayed as being the perpetrators of violence against White victims. These images appear to suggest that while crime is always a terrible event, it is even worse when committed by a Black man against a White victim. While limited to 55 days of coverage in Chicago, Entman's findings suggest strongly that the television news perpetuated a series of stereotypical depictions where Black suspects were violent, nameless, and particularly inclined toward attacking White victims.

Although Entman (1990, 1992) limited his investigation to local Chicago stations, such stereotypical depictions are not confined to Chicago news. For example, Romer et al. (1998) analyzed the 11:00 p.m. news broadcast for three stations in Philadelphia over 14 weeks. In each of the stories, Romer and his associates coded the ethnicity of primary actors (i.e., “person of color” or White) and they recorded their roles (i.e., victim or perpetrator). Echoing Entman's (1990, 1992) conclusions for Chicago, Romer et al.'s (1998) study found that Black Philadelphians were more likely to be shown as perpetrators than as victims in the news. In addition, Romer and his team found evidence that White Philadelphians were overrepresented as victims, and that these portrayals of White victims were driven by an overrepresentation of Black perpetrators. So even though crime reports indicated that only 10% of White victims are murdered by Black offenders, Philadelphia TV news depicted a world where 42% of White victims were murdered by Black thugs – this amounts to an overrepresentation of Black-on-White murder by a factor of over 400%.

Similar findings have emerged in studies by Dixon and Linz (2000a, 2000b) and by Gilliam and colleagues (1996, 2000) for the Los Angeles area. These studies reveal several findings. First, compared to crime reports, Blacks are overrepresented as criminal suspects in local news programs. On average, crime reports indicate that Blacks make up about 21% of actual perpetrators in the Los Angeles area, yet they appear as perpetrators about 37% of the time on Los Angeles area news (Dixon & Linz, 2000a). As in Chicago and Philadelphia, television news in Los Angeles systematically fills viewers' heads with racialized images that perpetuate the stereotype of young Black men as a violent threat to society.

Moreover, research has shown that Blacks are generally associated in TV news with negative roles. For example, Dixon and Linz (2000a, 2000b) found that Blacks are more than twice as likely to appear as criminal suspects than as officers on news programs – put simply, television news depicts Black men as criminals, not as law-protecting police officers. Similar to the Romer et al. (1998) study, Dixon and Linz (2000a) also found that Black men are more likely to appear as perpetrators than as victims in the news in Los Angeles area news programs. In fact, when compared to crime reports, Blacks are underrepresented as homicide victims on local television news. Whereas Blacks represent about 23% of the victims portrayed in television news, they account for almost 30% of the actual victims in the Los Angeles area. Given that being a victim of crime puts one in a position of sympathy in most viewers' eyes, this underrepresentation of Black victims amounts to yet another subtle way that Black experiences get downplayed. Finally, Blacks are twice as likely as White suspects to have negative pretrial publicity aired about them in the news (Dixon & Azocar, 2006; Dixon & Linz, 2002). For example, for Black suspects on television news, the news story is more likely (than for White suspects) to air the fact that they have committed crimes in the past. This reporting of past deeds is important because the American Bar Association has identified negative pretrial publicity as a hindrance to the constitutional principle of a fair trial. The bedrock commitment of our justice system, the belief that one is innocent until proven guilty, may be jeopardized by the mass-circulation of racial stereotypes.

The Portrayal of Latinos in News Programming

Latinos as a racial group have received far less attention across media types or genres (Greenberg et al., 2002). Analyses of Latinos in news programming and stories are few in comparison to those analyzing the portrayal of Blacks (Dixon & Linz, 2000a). What little research that exists on the topic, however, points to some stereotypical depictions that coincide with those of Blacks and some that diverge. Heider (2000) found that news coverage of Latinos centered on either crime or cultural festivals. In one of the first quantitative studies to assess the portrayal of Latinos in news, Sorenson, Manz, and Berk (1998) found that, when compared to real-world indicators, Latinos were underrepresented as suspects in homicide cases in print news. They also received less coverage as victims of crime. In a similar study, Dixon and Linz (2000a) found that Latinos were underrepresented as both perpetrators and officers when compared to real-world indicators. Further, Dixon and Linz (2000b) found that Latinos were underrepresented as victims of crime when compared to crime statistics. Dixon and Linz make the case that these findings are largely due to a high degree of underrepresentation and virtual absence of Latinos in news programming.

Studies conducted more recently have found similar patterns. Poindexter, Smith, and Heider (2003) found that Latinos were underrepresented as criminals in local news, accounting for only 2% of all perpetrators. In the same study, Latinos were less likely than Whites to be interviewed by reporters or be seen as reporters in news programming. In other content studies, Latino juveniles were more likely to be portrayed as lawbreakers than Whites (Dixon & Azocar, 2006). However, they were underrepresented when compared to crime reports.

The Portrayal of Whites in News Programming

As the largest racial group in the United States, Whites occupy a place of privilege and power in both the physical and mediated world (Clark, 1972; Lipsitz, 1998). As such, one would expect to see Whites portrayed in a much more positive manner across all media forms and content. Previous analyses have shown that Whites receive a larger portion of positive and sympathetic roles in news programming (Greenberg et al., 2002). Romer et al. (1998) found that in non-crime stories, Whites are equally likely to be portrayed in frequency compared to Blacks. However, in crime-related stories, Whites were less than half as likely as Blacks to be seen as perpetrators of crime and Whites occupied the majority of victim roles in televised news. Sorenson et al. (1998) found that Whites received more coverage in sympathetic roles such as victims of crime in print news as well.

Dixon and Linz (2000a, 2000b) found that Whites are underrepresented as both violent and felony perpetrators when compared to crime reports. Whites were less likely to be seen as lawbreakers in general than other racial groups, more likely to be seen as police officers than suspects, overrepresented as police officers and underrepresented as perpetrators of crime. Further, Whites were more likely to be seen as victims of crime in general than minorities, especially in homicide stories. One of the things we have been taught to forget by news biases is that a significant number of crimes are committed by White criminals; however, research indicates that White men make up only about 20% of the perpetrators shown on local television news (Dixon & Linz, 2000a, 2000b). By overemphasizing the crimes committed by Blacks and Latinos, and by underportraying the crimes committed by Whites, the news media racializes crime, showing it not as a communal dilemma to be addressed by all, but as a specifically racial problem in which predatory minorities victimize innocent White citizens. This systematic pattern of racializing news stories about crime depends in part on showing Whites as the upholders of law and order. This stereotypical local news depiction suggests that law and order is the province of White police officers, whose job is to defend White victims from Black and Latino villains. When inundated with such images, day in and day out, year after year, there can be little wonder that so many US citizens support harsher penalties for crime sentences.

Portrayals of Other Marginalized Groups in News Programming

The study of race and news has largely used a Black/White dichotomy. Only recent analyses include the study of Latinos and other racial groups (Josey et al., 2010). As such, findings are limited. Whether this is due to the relative infrequency of these portrayals in news creating a lack of statistical power for comparisons, or just a lack of interest is currently not known. Three groups will be briefly discussed to understand what is known in this area: Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Arabs/Arab Americans.

Investigations into how Asians are portrayed by the media have received relatively little attention in comparison to Latinos and Blacks (Poindexter, Smith, & Heider, 2003). Poindexter and colleagues found that Asian Americans were less likely than Whites, Blacks, or Latinos to be the focus of news stories. Further, they were significantly less likely to be news reporters or interviewees for news stories. However, when Asians are featured in news, studies have demonstrated that Asians are portrayed as model minorities (Wong, Faith, Nagasawa, & Lin, 1998). Wong and colleagues note that the model minority is characterized as obedient, hard working, and non-confrontational. This status largely causes Asians to be ignored from discussions of race and associations with problematic social issues.

Native Americans may have been the original settlers of North America, yet in the overall media landscapes they make up a miniscule proportion of the overall characters (Greenberg et al., 2002). When studies have found portrayals of Native Americans, they tend to be highly stereotypic (Merskin, 1998). Specifically, the roles offered are based on ancient notions of the brave warrior or involve some sort of highly mystical cultural practice. In news, Native Americans are largely invisible (Heider, 2000; Poindexter et al., 2003). When they are seen, they largely appear in stories revolving around sports mascots, alcoholism, gambling, or cultural festivals.

The final marginalized group to consider is that of Arabs/Arab Americans. Since 9/11, there has been an increased focus on how Arabs and Arab Americans have been portrayed in news media (Oswald, 2005; Person & Musher-Eizenman, 2005). Previous studies have demonstrated that Arabs in general are associated with issues of terrorism. However, research on these types of portrayals is largely still in its formative stages and has yet to yield robust results. Taken together, these findings show that outside of Latinos, Whites, and Blacks, other racial groups have received scant attention in the extant literature. Further study is needed to examine these portrayals using larger samples to hopefully draw meaningful statistical comparisons.

Summary of Content Analysis Findings in Traditional News Programming

Taken together, content analysis findings paint a bleak picture regarding the portrayal of race in traditional news programming. One could easily summarize the extant research with the following statement: Minorities occupy significantly more negative or stereotypic roles in news programming than Whites. Specifically, Blacks are over-represented as criminals, underrepresented in positive roles (e.g., police officers), and are more likely to be seen as the perpetrators of violent crimes. This general pattern holds true regardless of the medium or level (e.g., local or network). Latinos are severely underrepresented when compared to crime and population rates. However, when they are seen, they are more likely to be seen as perpetrators of crime than victims or police officers. Whites, as a racial group, maintain a level of privilege in the news media. This is evidenced by sympathetic and positive roles. When compared to actual population data and crime reports, Whites are underrepresented as lawbreakers and overrepresented as victims (especially homicide victims). Finally, other marginalized racial groups are seldom seen in news, yet still portrayed in problematic manners. These findings suggest that news outlets dichotomize stories along classic racialized lines (Dixon & Linz, 2000a, 2000b; Entman, 1990, 1992; Josey et al., 2010; Romer et al., 1998; Sorenson et al., 1998). Here minorities are presented as superpredators, victimizing innocent Whites who attempt to uphold the law and societal values. Obviously, such scripts may have important implications for the ways individuals perceive and treat persons of color. As such, we now turn our attention to experiments that attempt to detail such effects and the theories that explain them.

How Stereotyped Media Content Affects the Individual

Experimental research in the area of the portrayal of race in news relies on several related theories. The first is the cultivation hypothesis which postulates that consumers of media will grow to have expectations of the real world similar to those found in the media they consume (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorelli, 1980; Chapter 2, this volume). Thus, the cultivation hypotheses would postulate that the more consumers view stereotyped news content (e.g., Blacks as criminals) the more likely they would be to see that as a reflection of reality. Most often applied to survey research, cultivation has also been applied in experimental methodology, as well.

The next major theoretical tool used by scholars in experimental research is the theory of associated networks. Bower (1981) describes the way that individuals store and access information as a series of associated networks. Each network has a set of nodes that represent a piece of information. Some overarching concept or schema in turn links these nodes into a network. Networks of nodes are linked in a super-structure where activation of one construct spreads, activating others (Aldrich, Sullivan, & Borgida, 1989; Graber, 1988). Such activation is often referred to as spreading activation (Valentino, 1999). Important in this model are the powerful effects of priming. Priming refers to how exposure to a meaningful stimulus (e.g., race) brings to mind related concepts (e.g., crime) stored in memory (Berkowitz, 1984, 1990; Chapter 3, this volume). Thus, spreading activation and the associative networks model of cognition serve as explanations of priming effects observed in experimental research. Two concepts are key for the understanding of how this model explains news exposure effects: accessibility and application.

Accessibility

Accessibility is the ease with which a network of nodes can be activated and used by an individual (Fiske & Taylor, 1991; Valentino, 1999). Repeated use of any construct makes it better developed and chronically accessible. Chronically accessible constructs are stable over time representing strongly held beliefs, which in turn are likely to be used when evaluating a stimulus. Networks can also be accessed because they were used recently or brought to mind from exposure to a stimulus (e.g., priming). It is widely agreed that accessibility (either chronic or recent) is a necessary condition for the use of stored stereotypic information. However, there is still debate regarding whether it is a sufficient condition to generate any deleterious effects or application of those cognitions.

Application

Some scholars would disagree with the notion that because a series of nodes is well formed and chronically/temporarily accessible it is more likely to be used when evaluating a stimulus (Devine, 1989). Devine argues that individuals can circumvent this process given the appropriate amount of cognitive resources and a high degree of motivation. Thus, accessibility of a construct is necessary but not sufficient to explain the use of stereotypes. For Devine and others, it is entirely possible for individuals to have a Black stereotype schema that is highly accessible and tightly developed, yet not use it if they are highly motivated and have the appropriate resources at their disposal.

In short, the cultivation hypothesis suggests that racialized news may contribute to the formation and maintenance of stereotypes in individuals. These stereotypes are represented as schema or associated networks in memory. The more news one consumes, the more likely they will chronically access and use these networks. The chronic access and use of these networks create more developed stereotype schema in one's memory. These schema will have a lower initial-activation threshold, making them more likely to be used when an individual is primed by racial cues in news. This can ultimately have a multitude of deleterious effects on participants' attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, and emotions if one is not motivated to avoid relying on stereotypic schema.

Experimental Research in Race and News

Experiments studying the effects of stereotypic news coverage have proven quite fruitful. As with content studies, experimental work largely focuses on issues of crime and Blacks. In general, experiments find an association between exposure to stereotypic stories and negative evaluations of minorities. These studies most often rely on priming as a theoretical justification for their results. Thus, exposing individuals to racialized news reports activates stereotypic schema that may be used to evaluate minorities (Devine, 1989; Dixon, 2006, 2007, 2008; Dixon & Azocar, 2007; Dixon & Maddox, 2005; Ford, 1997; Gilliam & Iyengar, 2000; Oliver, 2003; Valentino, 1999). However, this trend is qualified by a number of moderating variables such as news viewing habits and existing racial attitudes.

Experimental Research Using Priming

In one of the earliest experiments, Peffley, Shields, and Williams (1996) exposed White college students to news stories featuring either Black or White suspects. The stimulus stories were identical except for the manipulation of inserting either a Black or White suspect photo into the video. They found that those exposed to Black suspects rated the character as guiltier than those who saw the White suspect. Additionally, those exposed to the Black suspect condition felt that the criminal would engage in a similar behavior in the future more so than those who saw the White suspect.

In another early study, Johnson, Adams, Hall, and Ashburn (1997) had participants read a series of news stories. These stories contained articles that were either violent (e.g., mugging) or nonviolent (e.g., surgeon general warnings). Following exposure to these news stories, participants read a vignette about a criminal act where the criminal's race was varied (e.g., White, Black, not specified). Results indicated that those exposed to violent news stories attributed blame for the crime to personal rather than situational factors when the criminal was Black. The same was not true for the other manipulations (e.g., White or race unspecified) or for participants in the nonviolent conditions. Important in this study is that Johnson et al. did not prime race explicitly as in the Peffley et al. (1996) study. Johnson et al. (1997) take this as evidence of spreading activation such that implicit primes of violence activate related stereotypic schema for participants. These, in turn, are used when evaluating the fictitious Black criminal. Other studies have found similar implicit priming effects (Dixon, 2007, 2008).

Studies have also found powerful priming effects on behavioral outcome measures such as support for political candidates after exposure to racially coded news stories. Valentino (1999) argues that local crime coverage activates racial attitudes, which are then used to evaluate and make decisions regarding candidates. He exposed participants to either no crime story, a nonminority crime story, or a crime story with minority suspects. Following exposure, participants rated, then, President Clinton on a number of race-associated issues (e.g., crime and welfare) and non-race associated items (e.g., taxation). Valentino found that following exposure to crime news, President Clinton's performance on crime was rated lower by those who saw no minority suspect and lowest by those who saw a minority suspect. Further, evidence of spreading activation was found such that Clinton's performance on related race-associated issues (e.g., welfare) was lowest for those who viewed a minority crime story despite not being explicitly primed with stories involving those issues in the manipulation. This was not the case for non-race associated issues (e.g., taxation). His results provide support for the notion that race need not be explicitly primed to activate race-related stereotypes.

Other scholars have examined the effects of racial primes on participant memory. In a series of studies conducted by Oliver and colleagues, participants were exposed to crime stories and asked to recall the race of the perpetrator (Oliver, 1999; Oliver & Fonash, 2002; Oliver, Jackson, Moses, & Dangerfield, 2004). Findings from these studies provide evidence for a schematic processing perspective. These theoretical notions suggest that the news media have overrepresented Black criminality so often that viewers automatically associate Blackness with crime.

In one of these studies, Oliver (1999) exposed participants to a series of televised news stories including either a Black or White criminal suspect. Immediately following exposure, participants were asked to look at a series of photographs of Black or White suspect photos used in the stories as well as those that were not used in the stories. They were then asked to rate the likelihood that each photo was of the suspect from the story they just read. Results indicated that there were no priming effects for misremembering the race of the suspect featured in the embedded article. However, when participants were asked to return three months later and repeat the same task, results indicated that those who viewed the White suspect were significantly more likely to misremember the suspect as being Black. Oliver speculates that this effect is due to participants forgetting the race of the suspect over time and relying on existing schema to fill in the missing information.

In a similar study, Oliver and Fonash (2002) exposed participants to newspaper crime stories that featured both violent and nonviolent crimes. The stories contained photographs of both White and Black suspects. After exposure to these series of stories, participants were presented with photos of White and Black individuals and asked if they had been featured as part of the story. Findings indicated that when subjects misidentified photos as being featured in the crime news stories, it was more likely to be along racial lines (e.g., foiler Black photos misidentified as actual Black stimulus photos). Further, misidentification was higher for photos of Blacks than Whites in violent crime stories. There were no differences in nonviolent stories. Of note in this study and others performed by Oliver and colleagues, is that regardless of expressed racial attitudes, misidentification was higher for photos of Blacks than Whites in violent crime stories. However, Oliver and colleagues (Oliver, 1999; Oliver & Fonash, 2002; Oliver et al., 2004) were explicitly measuring the effect of priming on participant memory and not other important outcome measures (e.g., evaluations of Blacks, actual behavior or support of race-associated issues).

Taken together these studies illustrate the powerful effect of priming on a number of outcome measures. First, explicit priming of race schema affects evaluations of Black criminal suspects. Second, implicit primes using race-coded issues (e.g., violent crime) causes spreading activation that leads to similar prejudicial judgments. Third, when asked to identify an out-group member (e.g., Whites identifying Blacks), participants are increasingly forced to rely on existing associative networks and schema to make decisions. This causes more misidentification of out-group members, especially over time. Yet despite these robust findings, the above studies do not illuminate the role that prior racial attitudes may play in the evaluation of persons of color, race-related issues, or actual behavior. In addition, they do not provide explicit support for a cultivation effect. As such it is necessary to examine how racial attitudes and news consumption may moderate or exacerbate these effects.

Racial Attitudes as a Moderator

It is intuitive that existing racial attitudes could play a central role on how individuals interpret and react to racialized news messages. The associative networks model (Bower, 1981) posits that individuals who have highly developed and accessible stereotype schema should have those schema accessed more easily than those who do not, when exposed to racial primes in news. Accordingly, it is evident that measuring existing racial attitudes could explain important differences in reactions to racialized news. Further, measuring such attitudes provides scholars with an opportunity to hold them constant in analysis; parsing out the unique role that news consumption plays in the reaction to racial primes in news. As such endorsement of racial stereotypes is one of the most well-researched moderators in experimental studies of the effects of racialized news (Dixon, 2008).

Most studies have evidenced endorsement of racial stereotypes as a powerful moderator of priming effects and participant responses on attitude/behavioral measures (Dixon, 2008; Domke, McCoy, & Torres, 1999; Entman & Rojecki, 2000; Gilliam & Iyengar, 1998; Gilliam et al., 1996; Peffley et al., 1996). Other research paradigms (Oliver & Fonash, 2002; Oliver et al., 2004) have failed to detect a moderating influence of prior racial attitudes on participant memory. In studies examining the relationship of stereotype endorsement and support for punitive crime policies, the general trend is that those who are exposed to primes involving Blacks are more likely to support such policies (Gilliam & Iyengar, 1998; Gilliam et al., 1996). These patterns are particularly enhanced for those who endorse stereotypes of Blacks (Dixon, 2008; Domke et al., 1999; Entman & Rojecki, 2000; Gilliam & Iyengar, 1998; Gilliam et al., 1996; Peffley et al., 1996).

In a study conducted by Dixon (2006a) participants were exposed to news coverage of a majority of Black or race-unidentified suspects. He found that those who endorsed Black stereotypes were more likely than those who did not to support the death penalty. Further, he found that those who consumed the most news rated offenders as being more culpable than those who consumed less news. In a similar study, Dixon (2008) exposed participants to a crime story where race was manipulated to have either a White, Black, or race unidentified suspect. He found that those who highly endorsed stereotypes found the Black and race unidentified suspects highly threatening and culpable for their behavior. Results indicated a greater support for punitive crime policies for stereotype endorsers. Similar results have been found using different primes for White participants (Gilliam & Iyengar, 1998, 2000).

On the whole it appears that endorsement of racial stereotypes amplifies negative evaluations of Blacks and of issues associated with Blacks as a racial group. This, of course is both intuitive and in keeping with prior research. However, as Dixon (2007) points out, findings such as these do not really speak to the unique role that repeated news viewing plays in this process.

News Viewing as a Moderator

Examining the role of the amount of news consumption as a potential moderator of the priming effects noted previously is crucial for scholars inclined to believe in a cultivation explanation for racial attitudes (Dixon, 2007). According to the cultivation hypothesis (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorelli, 1980, 1994) repeated exposure to media content should develop cognitive schema in individuals, which lead them to see the world in a way that is consistent with that presented by news programming. If the cultivation hypothesis holds true, endorsement of racial stereotypes, outward behavior towards persons of color and perceptions regarding race-associated issues (e.g., welfare and the death penalty) should be influenced by exposure to stereotypic news coverage. Thus, those who consume little or no stereotypic news should exhibit a lesser degree of racial bias in such judgments, while those who consume heavy amounts of stereotypic news should exhibit a greater degree of bias in line with stereotypic schema.

In examining the unique role that stereotypic news stories play in cultivating unrealistic views of minorities, scholars are now examining prior news consumption as a moderating variable (Dixon, 2007, 2008). In one such study Dixon (2007) exposed participants to news stories featuring either White, Black, or race unidentified suspects. He also exposed participants to stories featuring a police officer manipulation with the same racial breakdown. Dixon had participants indicate how much news they viewed and complete racial recall measures for suspects and police officers. He found that race unidentified perpetrators were rated by participants as being more likely to have been Black. Heavy news viewers expressed more confidence that the unidentified officers were White than did light news viewers. News viewing also predicted less liking of featured Black officers and more positive evaluations of race unidentified officers.

These results provide evidence for a cultivation effect because the effects were most pronounced for heavy news viewers. Content studies have shown that crime perpetrating is heavily coded as a Black issue whereas law enforcement is coded as a White issue (Dixon & Linz, 2000a). Heavy viewing of such news exposes individuals to the Blacks as superpredators/Whites as officers script (Gilliam & Iyengar, 1998). This viewing makes these schema of crime and Blacks highly connected and accessible (Shrum, 2001; Shrum & O'Guinn, 1993). Dixon (2007) makes the case that; as a result, race does not have to be explicitly primed for heavy news viewers to make such judgments in ambiguous racial situations. Thus, for heavy news viewers, one only need prime the Black or crime schema to activate the other. Experimental research bears this notion out (Dixon, 2007).

Summary of Experimental Findings

Taken together, experimental studies illustrate a number of key points. First, prior stereotype endorsement and news viewing play a large moderating role in determining the effect of news primes on outcome behaviors and attitudes. In other words, news consumers will react differently when watching crime news that features persons of color depending on their existing racial attitudes and their news consumption habits. Second, even when race is unidentified, spreading activation may occur such that mentions of crime with no identifiable race might bring to mind Black stereotypes, that in turn are then used by those who consume the most news. Thus, priming with a Black suspect may be a sufficient, but not necessary condition for negative evaluations and behaviors. Next, these negative outcomes are most pronounced for heavy news viewers and less so for light news viewers, a strong indication of a cultivation effect. Therefore, greater levels of news viewing can encourage the adoption of a distorted view of race and crime more in line with televised depictions than real crime statistics. Further, as time passes, consumers are forced to rely on existing schema to fill in the gaps in memory, thus creating a stereotypic recall bias for individuals who were initially exposed to a violent crime story. Finally, these experiments point to the relative stability of negative outcomes regardless of whether the dependent variables access attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors.

Revisiting Race and News in a New Media Environment

While experimental work has begun to examine the extent to which print and televised media can affect individuals' evaluations of minorities, over the past 10 years a gap has begun to emerge in the extant literature. Early studies detailing the portrayal of race in news programming began in the early 1990s and continued well into the early 2000s. However, since that time, relatively few content analyses have been conducted extending Entman's (1990, 1992, 1994) and Dixon and Linz's (2000a, 2000b) findings. Part of this is due to the extreme stability of the findings across content studies in televised and print media. Yet during that time new media began to supplant television and print as a dominant information source (Pew, 2000). In fact, studies are now showing that the Internet has led to a decreased reliance on television/print news and increased use of online sources as the first line of information (Pew, 2000). This fact has important implications for scholars seeking to understand the effects of media portrayals. As such, the second goal of this chapter is to revisit the portrayal of race in news. Particularly, it is necessary to examine any pertinent new findings and explain possible medium effects.

A simple literature search reveals that work detailing the portrayal of race in online news is largely absent in the academy (Josey et al., 2010). However, as people shift their information consumption habits from traditional media to new forms, it is necessary to understand not only content differences, but also effects differences. In the first and only published content analysis of the portrayal of race in online news, Josey and colleagues examined the top 13 online news websites as ranked by overall traffic. Their sample included both traditional news sources with online counterparts (e.g., New York Times) and sources that only had an online presence (e.g., Google and Yahoo News). They examined the portrayal of race on a number of important levels: headlines, images associated with stories, top and popular news stories. In determining the race of individuals in stories, images, and headlines coders were asked to use all available information presented in the story. As such they were able to infer race based on images published with the story, surnames traditionally associated with particular races (e.g., Rodriguez), explicit mention of a person's race and prior knowledge of a person's race (e.g., O. J. Simpson). Notable about this study is that Josey and colleagues expanded their codebook to included races other than Blacks and Latinos.

Josey and colleagues (2010) discovered that Whites were largely overrepresented in images associated with stories (over 75% of the sample) while Blacks, Latinos, and Asians were underrepresented. In headlines, a similar pattern emerged. Whites occupied the majority of portrayals in headlines (82.5%) with minorities being extremely underrepresented when compared to US census data. More problematic was the fact that when the most popular stories read by viewers were examined, these patterns were even more pronounced.

Similarly, stories selected by news websites as top news that were prominently featured on websites exhibited the same misrepresentations as popular stories. However, one might wonder what types of portrayals are being seen in such stories (e.g., regarding crime, welfare, etc.). Josey et al. (2010) examined one particular issue that has historically been associated with minority groups: poverty. Findings indicated that Latinos and Blacks were disproportionately overassociated with issues of poverty when compared to other racial groups. Whites and Asians were underassociated with poverty. This trend was most pronounced in top and popular news stories.

Thus, when revisiting the portrayal of race using online content a few general trends begin to emerge. Whites are overrepresented in benign or positive manners, occupying over 80% of the portrayals. Blacks, Latinos, and Asians are underrepresented in online news when compared to US Census data. Troubling is that Blacks and Latinos were associated with a highly stereotypic issue, poverty, while Whites and Asians escaped such associations. Most troubling is that these findings were especially pronounced in the news consumed most by readers that was also deemed top news by online news organizations. In short, it appears that online news organizations are faring no better in portraying race in a balanced and non-stereotypic manner than their offline counterparts. In fact, it appears that in many cases such portrayals may be worse in online news than in traditional media. We will now briefly consider the implications of such portrayals in online news.

Effects of Online News Portrayals

Traditional media effects research relies on paradigms that involve linear, largely non-interactive media. However, the Internet and new media present users with the opportunity to expose them to whatever communication they desire (Josey, 2010; Josey et al., 2010; Chapter 23, this volume). In such a user-driven environment, standard theories and research paradigms may not adequately account for the possible effects racialized portrayals may have on an individual. For instance, one of the more dominant theories in media effects research, the cultivation hypothesis, may not adequately explain how an individual chooses some messages over others. Therefore, it may be more difficult to ascertain why and how an individual may be affected by new media content. Scholars are now beginning to examine older theories such as selective exposure as a means to explain possible media effects in a new media environment (Appiah, 2003; Josey et al., 2010; Knobloch-Westerwick, Appiah, & Alter, 2008; Melican & Dixon, 2008).

Selective exposure posits that individuals rely on existing cognitive networks, attitudes, and beliefs when deciding which messages to expose themselves to (Klapper, 1960; Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1948; Sears & Freedman, 1967). Thus, it is entirely possible that the greatest explanatory variable for news consumption in new media is prior racial attitudes. Although this notion has yet to be formally tested by scholars in an experimental setting, early survey research has provided interesting results. In a survey measuring credibility ratings of online news organizations, Melican and Dixon (2008) found that those who most endorsed racial stereotypes found nontraditional news outlets (e.g., Huffington Post) to be more credible than traditional news outlets (e.g., New York Times). The reverse was true for those who did not endorse racial stereotypes. Melican and Dixon posit that individuals selectively expose themselves to such sources based on existing racial attitudes. It is possible that content differences are present such that nontraditional news websites (e.g., Drudge Report, Daily Beast) adhere less strictly to traditional notions of journalistic objectivity than traditional news websites (e.g., New York Times, LA Times), thus introducing elements of clear bias on race-related issues (e.g., crime, immigration, welfare). Further, it is plausible that nontraditional news websites simply cover such issues with greater frequency and depth than traditional news websites thus making them more appealing and credible for those who hold more prejudicial belief systems. Melican and Dixon point to the need for further content research and experimental studies to fully explain their results. To date, no content analysis has examined the portrayal of race across traditional and nontraditional online news sources, probing for critical differences that would explain these findings. In addition, no experimental study has been conducted to examine the role of existing racial attitudes on news selection. Thus one can only speculate that individuals motivated by prior news viewing and racial attitudes may seek out information that is in line with their existing beliefs. This represents one of the major voids in the race and news effects literature. We will now consider other notable voids.

Shortcomings in Prior Research

As we noted in the previous section, one of the most notable voids in the extant literature is a lack of grounded content analyses in online news. Specifically, no study to date has taken a comparative approach to probe for content differences between traditional and nontraditional news websites. Given the survey findings by Melican and Dixon (2008) it is likely that content differences may be present. Specifically, these nontraditional websites may present a more distorted stereotypic portrayal of minority groups. The fact that individuals who endorse racial stereotypes view such non-traditional websites as highly credible certainly suggests that some selective exposure is occurring.

The one published study that has examined the portrayal of race in online news raises some interesting questions that must be addressed. Josey et al. (2010) started from a framework that coded a number of stereotypes (e.g., crime, welfare, illegal immigration). Research in traditional media (Dixon & Linz, 2000a, 2000b; Entman, 1990, 1992, 1994) all focused on largely crime-based stereotypes. As evidenced by their study, other stereotypes are present in news content. As such future studies need to catalog and examine the multitude of problematic portrayals in new programming as they too may have important effects in the way people view and treat persons of color (Josey et al., 2010).

Next, both content and effects studies must extend their lens beyond the Black/White crime script. Future studies must investigate the powerful stereotypes unique to each racial group (e.g., Arabs and terrorism, Latinos and immigration). It is likely that just as the superpredators script of Blacks as criminals has real implications on individual beliefs and behaviors, other scripts may have important and substantive outcomes. Thus scholars must seek to understand these scripts and their effects.

Finally, scholars must begin to look for precursors to priming effects. Using theories such as selective exposure and attention, scholars can investigate how individuals select and attend to news. Given that individuals are turning more to online news outlets for their information, scholars must understand what, if any, effect prior attitudes and behaviors have on news consumption. This is especially important with respect to racial attitudes. Scholars have noted that the Internet is a safe haven for divergent and problematic opinions (e.g., hate groups) (Bargh & McKenna, 2004; Josey, 2010). Thus if prior racial attitudes can drive exposure to some content over others, it is entirely likely that those who endorse stereotypes will consume news that strengthens the association between problematic social issues and persons of color.

The impetus for grasping the mechanisms behind such practices is clear. Scholars must revisit race and news. We must detail changes in content patterns as we move to an online news environment. We must design experiments to examine how individuals select, attend to and store racialized news content.

Conclusion

This chapter began with two goals. The first was to synthesize the extant literature regarding the content and effects of racialized news portrayals. The second was to revisit these findings in light of a new media environment. As has become clear, both traditional and online news underrepresents minorities in relation to actual US census data (Dixon & Linz, 2000a, 2000b; Josey et al., 2010). When minorities are represented, they are presented in highly problematic and stereotypic ways. In traditional news programming, Blacks and Latinos are represented as criminals, while Whites are seen as victims and upholders of the law. In online news, Whites are disassociated with problematic issues such as poverty, while Blacks and Latinos are portrayed as poverty stricken.

Effects-based research has demonstrated a clear link between many of these problematic portrayals and negative evaluations of Blacks. Existing racial attitudes tend to exacerbate such effects. More importantly for media scholars, experiments have demonstrated the unique role that news viewing plays in the cultivation of stereotypic beliefs. Specifically, heavy news viewers are more likely to hold negative evaluations of Blacks and use those evaluations on a number of outcome measures.

In the end, it is clear that the news media do a poor job in fairly representing persons of color. Considering the overall racial landscape in news programming, persons of color are seen with less frequency than one would expect. This is especially the case in online news (Josey et al., 2010). When they are seen, minorities are likely to be portrayed in stereotypic manners and occupy a disproportionately high percentage of negative news roles (e.g., as criminals and as poverty stricken), while occupying a significantly smaller amount of positive news roles (e.g., as police officers and as wealthy) (Dixon & Linz, 2000a, 2000b). Returning to the underlying theory behind this process, it is likely that repeated exposure to such highly stereotypic images, especially for heavy news viewers, cultivates highly accessible cognitive schema within viewers that link persons of color with highly problematic social issues and stereotypic behaviors (Dixon, 2008; Gerbner et al., 1980, 1994). These portrayals ultimately affect news consumers and shape the way they interact with persons of color and the world around them.

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