Minorities and Communication 2016 Abstracts
Faculty Research Competition
Mediating the President’s American Otherness from ‘Birthers’ to bin Laden: Television-news representations of Barack Obama, false balance, and power • Angie Chuang, American University School of Communication; Anwulika Ngene • Studies on the racial and religious identity of President Barack Obama, and news media coverage related to the topic, have revealed complex, but consistent, patterns of Othering amid complex news-media messages. While some of these messages, including those from Obama itself, appear to subvert blackness, consistent news-media-fueled attacks on his religion, patriotism, and his citizenship by U.S. birth have driven a dominant culture vs. outsider binary consistent with Stuart Hall’s theories of representation. In one extraordinary week in 2011, these cultural codes were tested in the news media as billionaire Donald Trump publicly demanded Obama’s original birth certificate, fueling an existing “birther” controversy. Later the same week, Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a U.S.-led raid, and in this act of reauthorizing his Americanness, effectively silenced Trump and news-media coverage of “birthers.” This study of U.S. television-news coverage during and around that time period finds that journalists contextualized the foreign vs. American aspects of Obama’s identity to construct a mediated form of Americanness afforded to Other out-groups in previous studies. Furthermore, television news networks displayed false balance in positioning Trump’s claims as more or less equal to Obama’s assertion that he was born in the United States.
Priming Black Lives Matter Support: Interaction Effects in the Black and Mainstream Presses • Benjamin LaPoe, Western Kentucky University; Victoria LaPoe, WKU; Jocelyn Porter; Hope Bradford • This study examined three independent variables (online newspaper type, photo demographics, and language) priming support for Black Lives Matter protests and perceptions of story credibility. The inclusion of language characteristic of black press stories and a photo of black protestors primed support for Black Lives Matter protests. Being a black newspaper did not prime perceived credibility of the story and did not prime an increase or decrease in support for Black Lives Matter.
Latino is the New Black: Racial Disparities in Network Television Coverage of Major League Baseball Games. • James Rada, Ithaca College; K. Tim Wulfemeyer, San Diego State University • This research sought to determine whether racially biased commentary is present in televised coverage of professional baseball. Results showed that racial biases that were directed toward African American players in the past still exist, but are now directed toward Latino players. Given baseball’s demographics, which include a significant number of Latino players, this research fills an existing gap in the research while at the same time expanding the discussion beyond the historical Black/White dichotomy.
Using media literacy to counter stereotypical images of Blacks and Latinos • Joseph Erba, University of Kansas; Yvonnes Chen; Hannah Kang, University of Kansas • Critical analysis and deconstruction of media messages have the potential to promote favorable attitudes toward racial minorities. This study tested two types of media literacy interventions (critical and stereotype) aimed at enhancing college students’ attitudes towards Blacks and Latinos. Both interventions enhanced participants’ attitudes but the stereotype intervention was more effective than the critical one, both for short- and long- term effects. Implications address how to use media literacy to enhance conversation about race relations.
Racial Congruence Effect in Candidate Coverage: How Race Affects News Coverage of In- and Out-group Candidates • Mingxiao Sui; Newly Paul; Paru Shah, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Political Science Department; Johanna Dunaway, Department of Communication, Texas A&M University; Brooksie Chastant, Louisiana State University • This paper examines how the race of a journalist, the race of a legislator, and the race of the audience may intersect to influence news coverage of legislative candidates. Data for analysis are from the 2012 state legislative races, corresponding news coverage data, and 2012 ASNE Newsroom Census data. Our findings suggest two intriguing and important patterns. First, candidate coverage is largely driven by the news media’s racial considerations, such that minority reporters cover white and minority candidates in different ways. Second, when the race of reporters, candidates, and audiences intersect, reporters tend to provide more positive coverage of their in-group candidates while creating more negative coverage of the other out-group candidates.
Do Black Lives Matter?: A Content Analysis of New York Times and St. Louis Post Dispatch Coverage of Michael Brown Protests • Mohamad Elmasry, University of North Alabama; Mohammed el-Nawawy, Queens University of Charlotte • This study employed content analysis to examine how the New York Times and St. Louis Post Dispatch framed ‘Black Lives Matters’ protests in the aftermath of the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. The researchers examined all Times and Dispatch articles dealing centrally with the Michel Brown protests during three separate time periods corresponding to heavy protest activity. The coding scheme measured dominant frame direction, article length, sourcing and mention of protester crimes. Contrary to expectations, the papers provided overwhelmingly sympathetic coverage of ‘Black Lives Matters’ protests. In describing the protests, both newspapers were much more likely to employ a ‘positive’ frame suggesting peacefulness and order than a ‘negative’ frame suggesting lawlessness and deviance. Neither newspaper over-emphasized protester-perpetrated crimes, with both papers making relatively infrequent mention of looting, arson, assault, and gunfire, respectively. Importantly, both newspapers directly quoted protesters much more often than they quoted police officers and other government officials.
More than Just a Tweet: Understanding Black Americans’ Instrumental Use of Twitter • Roselyn J. Lee-Won, The Ohio State University; Tiffany White, The Ohio State University; Bridget Potocki, The Ohio State University; Sung Gwan Park, Seoul National University • The strong presence of Black Americans on Twitter has attracted scholarly attention. Drawing on the uses and gratifications framework on identity-related needs and goal-directed media use, social identity theory, and the rejection-identification model, we examined how discrimination experience, group identification, and racial agency shape Black Americans’ instrumental use of Twitter. An online survey conducted with 323 Black Twitter users living in the United States revealed that the experience of racial discrimination indirectly predicted three types of instrumental use of Twitter (information seeking, opinion expression, and socializing) only through serial mediation of group identification and racial agency. In line with the key postulates of the theoretical frameworks that guided our hypotheses, the results demonstrated that group identification and identity-related needs played a mediating role in the relationship between the socio-structural conditions and the patterns of social media use that are goal-directed and purposeful in nature among Black Twitter users.
Trust and credibility: Race and its effects on audience perceptions of news information from broadcast news and anchors • Sadaf Ali, Eastern Michigan University; Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • This study follows previous research in race and identity that defines “Brown” as a body that is perceived as a threat to the American government and the social values of the country, deemed as being un-American. Conversations post-9/11 have divided “browned” groups as threats or as “model minorities.” This research sees “Brown” and “browned bodies” defined as those from the Orient, while “White” is viewed as the Occident. The research will also further the conversation on the amplifying effects of media securitization on prevalent “othered” frames by examining how audiences respond to potential “threats.” The experiment asks audiences to determine whether the information they are viewing is trustworthy and authentic based on the racial makeup of the news presenter and the way the threat is presented. It uses framing theory to examine how meaning is made and shared in media accounts.
Finding the impact zone: Testing health news for the Native American audience • Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; Teresa Trumbly-Lamsam, University of Nebraska at Omaha; Casey Riesberg, University of Nebraska at Omaha • News media are key sources of health information for the public. Using a 2x2x2 between-subjects design, participants (N = 209) at a powwow responded to questions assessing knowledge and intent to read stories. Results revealed thematically framed stories encouraged knowledge acquisition among non-Natives. An interaction between diabetes news with thematic framing enhanced knowledge among Natives and the general population. Results suggest message strategies can effectively convey health information to Native Americans and non-Native populations alike.
Ethnic media as communities of practice: The cultural and institutional identities • Sherry Yu • In an increasingly multicultural, multiethnic, and multilingual media environment, ethnic media are an important part of the public sphere, and the process in which ethnic discourse is produced deserves attention. This paper advances Husband’s work on ethnic media as communities of practice by exploring ethnic media of young diaspora. Just as ethnic communities are heterogeneous across ethnic groups, depending on immigration history, demographics, and communication infrastructure, among other factors, ethnic media as communities of practice are never homogeneous and lineal practices. The case of Korean media in Vancouver and Los Angeles, one of the most rapidly growing ethnic media sectors in North America, suggests two new identities—cultural identity and institutional identity—in addition to the journalists’ subjective identities which Husband discussed. These two identities that are specific to Korean media confirm diversity within communities of practice and suggest the variations to be considered in the broader discussion of ethnic media as communities of practice.
We talk of what we care about: Understanding climate change perceptions and attitudes across Hispanic, African American, and Anglo racial/ethnic groups • Troy Elias, University of Oregon; Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon; Daniel Morrison, University of Oregon; Deborah Morrison, University of Oregon; David Morris II, University of Oregon • This research uses survey data from 923 individuals with an equal distribution of Hispanic, African-American, and Anglo participants. With the goal of understanding ethnic populations’ perceptions of climate change, the study examined five factors: (1) knowledge, (2) perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy, (3) social comparison, (4) ideologies, and (5) risk perception, through the theoretical lens of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Study findings show differences in knowledge, attitudes, and intentions to adopt ameliorative, pro-environment behaviors.
Student Paper Competition
Obsessing Over the White: The Effects of Fairness Cream Commercials on Pakistani-American Women. • Aqsa Bashir, University of Florida • This study examines the effects of two types of message appeals (emotional Vs. cognitive) in conjunction with two cultures influencing Pakistani-American women’s ideal skin color. Asian society holds fair skin equivalent to female beauty and cosmetic companies have benefited the most from this by developing a number of fairness creams. A growth in this industry shows Eastern women still conform to ‘white beauty’ while Western women are striving for a sun kissed tan skin. Pakistani-American women are likely to be influenced by both the Pakistani and the Western environment they grew up in, thereby causing changes in their ideologies. The current study found that the hegemonic American culture played a significant role in shifting the Pakistani woman’s ideal skin color toward a darker spectrum. Also Pakistani-American women did not conform to their Asian preference of fair skinned beauty and indicated a satisfaction with their skin color on the whole.
Comparative newspaper coverage of the twentieth century African American freedom struggle • Christopher Frear, University of South Carolina • This systematic literature review examines comparative studies of newspaper coverage of the twentieth century African American freedom struggle. Media historian Michael Schudson wrote that the language used by the media influences collective memory about those people and events. Whether in digital, microfilm, or print archives, newspapers continue to shape the discourse about historical events. Increasing digital access to historical African American newspapers should be an important goal for media archivists for a robust, multi-perspective memory.
When video becomes salient: how ethnic and mainstream newspapers framed the Sandra Bland controversy • Earlesha Butler, University of Florida • “This study analyzed ethnic and mainstream newspaper coverage to determine how each framed the arrest and death of Sandra Bland after the releasing of public video of Bland’s controversial arrest. The study attempted to find if ethic and mainstream newspapers shifted from their traditional news frames. Ethnic newspapers less frequently provided thematic coverage, while mainstream newspapers more frequently framed the story as a conflict. The conflict frame also was more often linked to public video of Bland’s arrest. However, both mainstream and ethnic publications used the attribution of responsibility frame equally, suggesting that the video may have led to a shift in news coverage as both ethnic and mainstream newspapers alike provided news and editorial coverage that addressed social factors illustrated in the video footage.
Black Lives Matter 5280: Bridging Love and Disruptions With Community, Meetings and Social Media • Gino Canella, University of Colorado Boulder • This paper complicates the radical pluralistic politics of social movements through an ethnographic case study of Black Lives Matter 5280 in Denver, Colorado. I examine the organization’s social media activities and public community meeting practices to show how activists challenge negative representations of social movements portrayed by the news media; educate and inform its members; and build bridges between the movement and community organizers, journalists, elected officials, and the public. These strategies build a cohesive movement based on shared struggles.
Media Politics of Belonging • Miriam Hernandez • The present project explores and compares the reporting trends of the cultural aspect of immigration in the 1982-2012 timeframe in the Los Angeles Times. Drawing from assimilation and framing theories, a content analysis was conducted on cultural frames (“immigrant as other” and “inclusion of immigrants”) to examine their background, their evolution in the last decades and the journalistic devices of their reporting. A total of 364 news stories were collected, and 112 had explicit references to cultural arguments. The findings indicate that although progress has been made towards a fairer and more personal representation of the immigrants’ lives in the United States; the exclusion arguments have moved away from just the cultural characteristics, into broader and more abstract subjects, such as the discussion of their political importance to political parties and the passing of legislation to regulate their residence in the country.
At the Border: A comparative examination of U.S. newspaper coverage about unaccompanied immigrant minors • Ricardo Valencia, University of Oregon • In 2014, the U.S. media extensively covered the arrival of thousands of unaccompanied children from Central American to the southern borders. This research attempted to examine if newspapers in cities with high concentrations of Central Americans (Los Angeles Times and The New York Times) and newspapers in cities with low concentrations of Central Americans (The Oregonian and The Seattle Times) covered the issue in a different fashion. The goal was to analyze if the concentration of foreign-born Central Americans could influence the journalistic routines of the newspapers. Using a quantitative analysis of over 150 articles and 900 sources of information, this study examines the pattern of source selection and the articles’ relevance. It finds that the patterns of source selection between the two types of newspapers are similar; a tendency that places Latino sources as peripheral actors. However, newspapers in cities with high concentration of Central American give significantly more relevance to the articles related to the flow of immigrant children. The research concludes by suggesting that a concentration of immigrants may play an important role in the presentation of information in English-speaking newspapers.
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