Race and the Misrepresentation of Victimization on Local Television News

Abstract

A content analysis of a random sample of television news aired in Los Angeles and Orange Counties was undertaken to assess representations of Whites, Blacks, and Latinos as crime victims. Intergroup comparisons (Black vs. White and Latino vs. White) revealed that Whites are more likely than African Americans and Latinos to be portrayed as victims of crime on television news. Interrole comparisons (perpetrator vs. victim) revealed that Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be portrayed as lawbreakers than as crime victims, whereas the reverse is true of Whites. Interreality comparisons (television news vs. crime reports) revealed that Whites are overrepresented, Latinos are underrepresented, and Blacks are neither overrepresented nor underrepresented as homicide victims on television news compared to crime reports. Conversely, African Americans are overrepresented, Latinos are underrepresented, and Caucasians are neither overrepresented nor underrepresented as perpetrators on television news. Whites appear to be overrepresented as victims, whereas Blacks are relegated to roles as perpetrators and Latinos are largely absent on television news. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Misrepresentations of Lone Shooters: The Disparate Treatment of Muslim, African American, Hispanic, Asian, and White Perpetrators in the US News Media

“…The research reported here is an important extension of current literature on media representations of racial and ethnic groups in terms of mass tragedies (e.g., Chiricos & Eschholz 2002;Dixon & Linz, 2000a, 2000bKlein & Naccarato, 2003;Entman & Rojecki, 2000). Importantly, this work yields two broad conclusions.…”

“…For example, it is possible that the overrepresentation of certain groups (e.g., males, people of color, etc.) as perpetrators in news stories may encourage the development of racial and/or gender stereotypes or better yet encourage public anger towards such groups (e.g., Barlow, Barlow, & Chiricos 1990;Dixon, Azocar, & Casas 2003;Dixon & Linz, 2000a, 2000bRussell, 1998). In light of their potential influence, a number of researchers have directed their investigations to focus on how racial and ethnic groups are portrayed in crime news stories.…”

“…Research provides some evidence that racial minorities (especially, African Americans) are overrepresented in news stories focused on perpetrators of violent crime (e.g., Frisby, 2015;Dixon & Linz, 2000a, 2000b, however, what is still left to understand is how alleged shooters involved in mass tragedies are framed in national news coverage of tragic events. This study seeks to compare media portrayals of White, Black, Hispanic, Muslim, Asian, and Pacific Islanders in news stories about tragic violent events.…”

Stigma: Media Influence on

“…These groups are often repeatedly associated with negative stereotypes such as laziness, criminality, and dishonesty, and this in turn leads to myopic and unfavorable evaluations from members of their groups. For instance, content analysis of media portrayals of racial-ethnic minorities such as African Americans and Latin Americans demonstrates that these people are routinely represented as violent criminals, lazy recipients of welfare, oversexed promiscuous people, and unintelligent buffoons (Dixon & Linz, 2000;Mastro & Robinson, 2000). Similarly, research shows that media portrayals repeatedly depict people with mental illnesses as dangerous and unpredictable (Smith, 2007).…”

Portraying Reality? An Analysis of Indigenous Stereotypes in Fictional Programs on Mexican Television

“…Por tanto, una pregunta de investigación típica sería, por ejemplo: ¿qué rol tienen más probabilidad de desempeñar los personajes caracterizados como indígenas en los programas de ficción? Además, los datos ofrecidos por este índice permiten conocer si la imaginería utilizada por los medios se compone de elementos negativos o positivos (Dixon y Linz, 2000). (2000) señalan que estas comparaciones intragrupos pueden ser muy útiles si se realizan constantemente a lo largo del tiempo, pues de esta manera se generaría un mejor conocimiento de la evolución de la representación de los colectivos sociales en los medios.…”