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In a content analysis of 148 newspaper articles we examined whether victims of violent crime (excluding sex crimes) are treated differently according to their gender. Articles taken from 4 newspapers showed that accounts of violent crime personalize male victims more than female victims: more personal information was included about male victims, and males were significantly more likely to be referred to by name rather than by a noun ("the victim") or pronoun. In a second study we investigated whether such treatment could affect both empathy for the victim and victim blame. Participants read an account of a murder that manipulated victim gender, degree of personal information, and the manner in which the victim was described. Empathy for the victim was increased across victim gender by both inclusion of personal information and referring to the victim by name. Victim blame was also reduced by the inclusion of personal information. Implications of how the news media may subtly reduce empathy and engender blame for female victims are discussed.

This survey study involving 1,357 students attending a multi-cultural high school explored how thefeatures identified by the contact hypothesis reduce intergroup bias. Specifically, the study examined predictions derived from the common ingroup identity model that equal status, cooperative interdependence, interaction and egalitarian norms reduce bias, in part, because they alter cognitive representations of the student body from different groups to a more inclusive ingroup. The survey measured students'impressions of thefeatures of contact at school, their representations of the student body (e.g., as one group or different groups), and bias in their affective reactions and overall attitudinal favorability toward groups at school. In general, reductions in bias were predicted by stronger common ingroup representations, weaker representations of two groups, and ethnic/racial identities that included a superordinate American identity. Furthermore, as predicted, cognitive representations (e.g., as one group) mediated the relation between contact and reductions in bias. The findings were integrated into a more complex model in which intergroup affective reactions are conceived to be a major determinant of overall attitudinal favorability.

The media remains a powerful presence in U.S. culture. It gives people news of world and local events, it entertains, and it may even function as a companion to children. Because it functions as a window to the outside world, what appears across its landscape actually may become people's reality. Thus, the potential for distorting their view of that world is high if the picture provided is unrepresentative of actual events. For example, the prevalence of violent acts on television has been linked to increased aggression and escalating impressions of a dangerous world, and the overrepresentation of youth and beauty may be a causal factor of eating disorders. In this article, we explore the possibility that the media may also serve as a powerful creator of the very public opinions it seeks to reflect in its news. Subtle nonverbal cues of newscasters have been shown to influence voting behavior, and the media's overrepresentation of the proportion of blacks in povert may decrease whites' support of welfare. By portraying a world in which people's opinions are based on their ethnic or demographic group membership, the media may also subtly but powerfully create the very opinions they seek to reflect.

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