The Racial and Ethnic Typification of Crime and The Criminal Typification of Race and Ethnicity in Local Television News

Abstract

Local news programming from three television stations in Orlando, Florida was analyzed for racial and ethnic content in relation to crime. The data show that Blacks are not overrepresented among TV news suspects relative to their proportion in the population or among those arrested in Orlando. Hispanics are slightly overrepresented in relation to their numbers in the population. Qualitatively, Blacks and especially Hispanics who appear as crime suspects do so in more threatening contexts than Whites. Blacks are more likely to appear as criminal suspects than as victims or positive role models, but this pattern is especially amplified for Hispanics. These results suggest that local TV news may contribute to the social construction of threat in relation to Blacks and Hispanics, a condition that is associated with fear of crime, “modern racism,” and the mobilization of various social controls and exclusions.

From Good to Bad and Everything in Between: An Analysis of Genre Differences in the Representation of Moral Nature

“…Both the news and information as well as the entertainment genre featured overrepresentations of Arabic in the morally bad category, while entertainment also showcased White moral neutrality and Black badness and ambivalence. These results are largely in line with the results reported by Chiricos and Eschholz (2002), and Mastro and Greenberg (2000), who indicated that ethnic minorities are more often associated with criminality than Whites are and are thus assigned the role of perpetrator or villain. It is surprising that fiction showed an overrepresentation of White ambivalence.…”

Coverage of Black versus White Males in Local Television News Lead Stories

“…Other researchers [17] theorized that the perpetrators of crime, who according to the images shown during local newscasts appear to be overwhelmingly Black males, begin to represent the "evil forces" in society that must be controlled to maintain social order. Chiricos and Eschholz [7] suggests local TV news may contribute to social controls and exclusions in relation to Blacks and Hispanics, a condition associated with the fear of crime identified as "modern racism." Furthermore, "modern racism," is defined as a form of racism that is more subtle but perhaps more harmful in the long run [8][9][10][11], and can be characterized as "anti-black affect or a general hostility toward Blacks" [11].…”

“…Furthermore, "modern racism," is defined as a form of racism that is more subtle but perhaps more harmful in the long run [8][9][10][11], and can be characterized as "anti-black affect or a general hostility toward Blacks" [11]. Today's media's representation of Blacks and race leads to two different but closely related views: "[T]he first assumes that crime is stereotypically portrayed as a Black phenomenon, and the second assumes that Blacks are disproportionately portrayed as criminals" [7]. The implications of connecting Blacks, especially Black males with crime is well documented and some researchers believe that link may've been solidified during the 1988 Presidential election race between George Bush and Michael Dukakis, when the Bush campaign unveiled the infamous Willie Horton photo.…”

“…Barlow et al [17] suggested that when television newscasts frequently overrepresented certain groups, like males and people of color as perpetrators and overrepresented [7] other groups, like females and Whites as victims, they may mislead the public to view incorrectly certain groups as the most vulnerable to crime and other groups as always the villains Dixon and Linz [12] and Russell [23] suggested that media sources can shape public opinion that could lead to disproportionate criminal penalties for crimes that are more typically committed by those groups that are overrepresented as lawbreakers in news stories. Over the past two decades penalties toward criminals have resulted in a tripling of incarcerations rates, despite the fact that crime is leveling off and in some cases falling [24,25].…”

“…Previous research [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] has examined how some television news programs disproportionately portray Black males, as lawbreakers, while White males are significantly more likely to be shown in the context of a defender, or the "good guy." However, there is no known work that has focused solely on media bias associated with the lead news story in local newscasts.…”