Minorities and Communication 2013 Abstracts
Faculty
Television News Reporting in Salinas, California: Defining and Informing a Latino Community with Excessive Crime News Coverage • Carolyn Brown, American University; Robin Chin Roemer, University of Washington • This study uses cultivation theory to examine how local television news connected Latino identity and violence during a two-month span in 2012, in Salinas, California. Salinas is a predominately Latino community with a significant immigrant population and a reputation for gang violence. Findings indicate a substantial focus on crime news stories and a disproportionate identification of Latinos as perpetrators of crime compared to the identification of Latinos as victims of crime.
Beyond the Positive-Negative Paradigm of Latino News-Media Representations: DREAM Act exemplars, Stereotypical Selection, and American Otherness • Angie Chuang, American University; Robin Chin Roemer, University of Washington • News media research on coverage of Latinos has historically focused on negative stereotyping, particularly representations of the racial group as threatening, criminal, lazy, or a burden on society. The 2010-2012 newspaper coverage of a proposed immigration policy commonly referred to as the DREAM Act provides a unique case study, one that addresses a subgroup of Latinos that inherently defies traditional stereotypes. A mixed-method analysis of the use of exemplars in newspaper coverage of the DREAM Act reveals a portrayal that, on its face, appears overwhelmingly positive. However, by applying Wilson, Gutiérrez, & Chao’s conceptualizations of Stereotypical Selection, this study reveals layers of complexity beyond a traditional positive-negative paradigm of Other representation. Newspapers’ emphasis on signifiers of hard work, academic achievement, self-determination, and other traditionally “American” cultural codes, juxtaposed with signifiers of poverty and financial need, constitute a Stereotypically Selective “success story.” Such semiotic codes connote a dependency on American systems, and a need to assimilate American values, in order to overcome the “deficits” of being Latino and undocumented. The exemplars are ultimately cast in the model of “problem people” who must be addressed by the dominant culture. Thus, the newspaper coverage establishes the DREAM Act as both tool and metaphor for the mediation of American Otherness, or the socially and culturally constructed idea of earned and conditional Americanness, while maintaining the dominant cultural order’s designation of Other status.
‘The Worldwide Leader in Sports’ As Race Relations Reporter: Reconsidering the Role of ESPN • George Daniels, The University of Alabama • Employing the textual analysis technique, this paper examined ESPN’s award-winning Outside the Lines program on Alcorn State’s 2012 hiring of its first white football coach. ESPN Films also premiered Ghosts of Ole Miss, a feature film about the all-white football team that in 1962 had a perfect season as James Meredith integrated the school. ESPN’s Wright Thompson and Jemele Hill both produced 2012 reports on race, but only one was socially responsible journalism.
At the Intersection of Libel and Race, Aaron Henry picks up a Hitchhiker? • Aimee Edmondson, Ohio University • Lesser known civil rights activist Aaron Henry, the long-time president of the Mississippi NAACP, faced many threats of violence throughout the 1950s and 1960s. This included the bombing of his home. He also faced libel suits filed by local public officials in retaliation for his activism. Henry v. Pearson and Henry v. Collins were just two libel cases filed against a civil rights leader in an effort to silence them into submission. These cases are added to a growing list of libel cases filed in the wake of the famous 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan, the most famous libel suit that also was a case about race. Such suits were an attempt to take civil rights discourse out of the newspapers and off television and bog it down in the court system.
Media representations and Latino students’ college experiences • Joseph Erba, American University • The study connects media’s racialization of Latinos and Latino students’ educational challenges in the U.S. by focusing on how Latino students perceive the role media play in shaping their college experiences. It explores the influence that Latino students with different levels of cultural identification ascribe to media representations of their racial/ethnic group. Findings reveal that media representations mostly affect Latino students with high levels of cultural identification.
The Ambassador and the Activist: Reporting the Willie Earle Lynching of 1947 • Craig Flournoy, Southern Methodist University • “This paper examines coverage of a 1947 lynching by the mainstream media (particularly the “New York Times” and “The New Yorker”) and the black press (especially the Columbia, S.C. “Lighthouse and Informer” and the “Pittsburgh Courier”). Comparing the reporting in the black and white press allows some longstanding assumptions to be tested: * That the black press has been a “fighting” press more interested in advancing a point of view than in superior news reporting. * That the “”New York Times”” provided the best coverage of the civil rights revolution. * That John Popham, southern correspondent for the “Times” from 1947 to 1958, did a better job covering the South than any other journalist. To assess the validity of these conclusions, this paper examined coverage of a 1947 murder case that became the largest lynching trial in southern history. The study found that the “”Lighthouse and Informer’s”” John McCray and other African-American reporters produced stories that were well-sourced, explored the white and black communities, provided historical context and identified white bigotry as the key problem. Popham and other celebrated white reporters produced poorly-sourced, ahistorical journalism, portrayed white southerners as progressive and endorsed racial segregation. Still, the mainstream media’s coverage of the Earle case represented significant progress. Despite their often flawed reporting and obvious racial bias, the “Times” and “The New Yorker” and other mainstream publications shed unprecedented light on the savagery of a lynch mob and the South’s all-white system of justice. Dixie would never be the same.
“How Ohioans and their Newspapers Defended African-Americans who Emancipated Themselves from Slavery” • Lee Jolliffe, Drake University • By the 1850s, Ohio had become a welcoming state for African-American refugees escaping slavery, based on a statewide examination of its newspapers of the era. This article traces the specific factors that drew national attention to Ohio as a refuge for the brave African-Americans able to flee slavery and seek personal freedom, then explores how ordinary people in that state, both African- and European- American, responded with direct action against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, all as reported with applause by Ohio newspapers. For comparison, an Appendix provides summaries of public responses to the Act and to African-American refugees in other Northern states.
Beyond the Digital Divide: A Look at Media Expectancies across Seven Media and Three Racial Subgroups • Amanda Mabry, The University of Texas at Austin; Matthew Eastin, The University of Texas at Austin; Vincent Cicchirillo, University of Texas at Austin • First-level digital divide research centered on the gap between people who did or did not have access to the Internet and the subsequent social inequities caused by a lack of access to information. Although such imbalanced access to digital media appears to be dissipating, other social inequities – from health to education – remain a serious concern across racial subgroups. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the digital divide and knowledge gap discourse from a macro-level perspective based on today’s rich media environment. The current analysis supports the notion that although media usage differences based on race alone have waned, racial subgroups do differ in their motivations to use various media. The findings highlight how media is used differently across racial subgroups, which increases our understanding of the relative utility these media – both traditional and new. These insights into which media channels are preferred by certain subgroups are important in order to effectively disseminate information that might narrow any existing gaps in knowledge and other disparities.
Improving Attitudes towards International Teaching Assistants through Perspective Taking • Uttara Manohar, The Ohio State University; Osei Appiah, The Ohio State University • International teaching assistants across campuses in United States are often criticized and negatively evaluated by undergraduate students. The social identity framework suggests that criticism of international TAs can be a result of intergroup bias. Perspective taking is an effective mechanism that improves intergroup attitudes. We conducted an experiment to test whether perspective taking helps improve undergraduate students’ (N = 125) attitudes towards international TAs. Findings support effectiveness of perspective taking but demonstrate gender differences.
The Cosby Show and A Different World: Impact on HBCU Enrollment • Paula Matabane; Bishetta Merritt • “Anecdotes claim that viewing The Cosby Show and A Different World inspires African American youth to attend an HBCU. This study tested that claim through an empirical survey of 265 current HBCU students at seven schools measuring the relationship between racial-cultural needs and traditional needs for attending an HBCU and student reliance on social networks, media content including uses and gratifications associated with viewing The Cosby Show and A Different World when making college choice. Stepwise regression analyses showed different variables explained the needs of males and females in making college choice. Males were more reliant social networks and films set at HBCU’s with strong male leads. Females were more television reliant especially on The Cosby Show and A Different World in deciding to attend an HBCU. Parental encouragement was always most significant for explaining male needs but not those of females. Low religious participation was a significant predictor of female needs for attending an HBCU.”
Whiteness Theory in Advertising: Racial Beliefs and Attitudes toward Ads • Angelica Morris, The University of Texas at Austin; Lee Ann Kahlor, University of Texas at Austin • We argue that ethnic identity and color blind racism exist across audiences, and examine those constructs as they relate to model race and attitudes towards advertisements received by white and non-white audiences. Although ethnic identity and color bind racism were present in both audiences, we did not find significant relationships between race indices and attitudes toward ads. We did find color blind racism was significantly related to black audiences receiving an ad with a black model.
Look who’s talking to our kids: Representations of race and gender in TV commercials on Nickeloedeon • Jack Powers; Adam Peruta • There is a paucity of research examining the representations of race and gender in television commercials featured on popular children’s programs. The few studies that do exist tend to emphasize Saturday morning cartoon ads from decades ago. With that in mind, a systematic content analysis of commercials on the popular children’s cable network Nickelodeon was conducted. This study analyzed the frequency, physical, and appearance characteristics and gender of lead presenters (central characters) in TV commercials featured as part of the weekday after-school programming on Nickelodeon. The analysis of 196 lead presenters suggests that Asians and Hispanics are grossly underrepresented relative to their real-life population numbers; African-Americans are overrepresented; racial/ethnic minority presenters have darker skin, darker hair, wear more makeup, and have more accessories than their white/majority counterparts; and females are underrepresented both as lead presenters and as voiceover actors relative to their real-life population numbers. Further, we found no significant differences between racial/ethnic minority lead presenters and their majority counterparts in regard to a variety of physical and appearance characteristics (weight, height, style of dress, grooming, cleanliness, etc.). Finally, we report that indigenous peoples are absent, and majority presenters are underrepresented.
Invisible struggles: The representation of ethnic entrepreneurship in US newspapers • Leona Achtenhagen, Jonkoping International Business School; Cindy Price Schultz, University of Wyoming • How media portrays entrepreneurship plays an important role in its perception as a career option. During economic crises, self-employment presents an alternative to unemployment. Ethnic minority businesses, which more often are founded in low-threshold industries, represent an example of the struggles of new ventures. Our paper examined US newspaper coverage of ethnic minority entrepreneurs and showed that the phenomenon is almost invisible in US newspapers, despite its importance for the US economy.
We Are Rom. We Are Gypsies: Constructions of Gypsies in American Reality Television • Adina Schneeweis, Oakland University; Katie Foss, Middle Tennessee State University • This study examines two reality television programs that introduce the Roma/Gypsy ethnicity to a U.S. audience – TLC’s My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding and National Geographic Channel’s American Gypsies. Textual analysis suggests that the programs construct discriminatory and stereotypical representations for the fairly unfamiliar American audience, by overemphasizing tradition, gaudiness, and minimizing cultural adaptation. The representations are problematized for the ways in which they other a group of people already under scrutiny.
Social Media, Social Good: HBCU College Students’ Use of Social Media During Superstorm Sandy • Kim Smith, North Carolina A&T State University; Bonnie Newman-Davis, North Carolina A&T State University; Adrian Gray, North Carolina A&T State University; Vanessa Cunningham-Engram, North Carolina A&T State University • “Students at an HBCU used a snowball technique to recruit friends and family members to take an online survey which was designed to learn how respondents–mostly college students– used social media like Facebook and Twitter during Superstorm Sandy to keep in contact with friends and family in the storm in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. The students saturated their social media sites with a link to the survey, whose results revealed: (1.) 46% of respondents spent up to three hours and 13% up to six hours per day using traditional and social media to keep up with the storm and how friends and family members were coping with it, (2.) 91% said keeping in contact with family members and friends via social media was important because it helped ease anxiety, as they were able to communicate–to some degree– with family members and friends, and (3.) 71% said they had become extremely dependent, dependent or somewhat dependent upon social media during the storm. The results speak to (1.) media system dependency theory’s resiliency (people will become more dependent upon a particular medium during a crisis), and (2.) the role of some social support functions, which explain why people use social media. The study illustrates the growing importance of social media during an emergency. The researchers discuss these and other findings.
Race in Virtual Environments: Competitive versus Cooperative Games with Black or White Avatars • Mao Vang; Jesse Fox • Often, virtual environments and video games have established goals, and to achieve them users must either compete or cooperate with others. This research tested how communicative goals in a virtual environment may influence how White users perceive Black and White virtual partners. White participants (N = 101) played an anagram game competitively or cooperatively in a virtual environment with a Black or White avatar. Black avatars elicited more positive assessments than White avatars.
Automatic and Controlled Processes in Stereotype and Prejudice Activation • Ming Wang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • In the study of racial stereotype and prejudice activation, the dual process model of automatic and controlled mechanisms has gained a fair amount of scholarly attention and has been heatedly debated. In this essay, I will first review recent developments in the study of automaticity and control of stereotyping and prejudice in social psychology. I will start with an influential model that integrated both processes in the study of stereotype activation and trace how the model has been refined and extended to this day in three notable aspects. Then I will use implicit priming theory (Mendelberg, 2001) as an example to illustrate how this theory can benefit from the more elaborate and intricate conceptualization of stereotype activation in social psychology. Reciprocally, I will also use an O-S-O-R model (Markus & Zajonc, 1985; McLeod, Kosicki, & McLeod, 1994) developed in the context of campaign communication to elucidate how the program of research in stereotype activation in social psychology can also be synthesized through this framework. Ultimately, I strive to uncover potential nexuses that will bridge theories in the disciplines of communication, political science, and social psychology in their approaches to tackling racial stereotypes.
Linguistic Acculturation Effects on Attitude toward Ad Language among Hispanic Audiences of Mexican Descent • John M. Burton, The Laster Group; Kenneth C. C. Yang, The University Of Texas At El Paso • The growth of the U.S. Hispanic population and its purchasing power over the past twenty years has prompted marketers to look for better and more efficient methods of effectively targeting messages to this important consumer segment. This study focused on the historically dominant mass-reach medium of television and explored acculturation effects on attitude toward television ad language among Hispanic audiences of Mexican descent. In this study, we examined the relationship between linguistic acculturation and Hispanic audiences’ attitudes toward ad languages in television commercials. Ethnic identity and gender were used as moderating variables. The study used a survey method to collect empirical data from 312 college students in a large Hispanic-serving public university in the Southwest. Hierarchical regression results confirmed that, while linguistic acculturation is a strong and positive predictor of Hispanics’ attitude toward Spanish language in television commercials, media content and public language use negatively predict their attitude toward Spanish language in television commercials. Unexpectedly, gender and ethnic identity did not moderate the relationships. Discussion of findings and the study’s limitations are presented and the implications for future research are outlined.
Serving the Needs of the Latina Community for Health Information • Ronald Yaros, University of Maryland; Jessica Roberts, University of Maryland; Elia Powers, University of Maryland-College Park; Linda Steiner, University of Maryland • Latinos remain the largest US population with limited health literacy (Andrulis & Brach, 2007). Concerned with how local media can meet the information needs of underserved audiences, we interviewed Latinas who are pregnant or mothers of young children, living in a community with a high percentage of Spanish speakers, and we surveyed 33 local health professionals. Findings are that Latina women’s most common source of health information was family and friends. They said they tune to television and radio (which they can receive in Spanish), but gave low grades to news media for regular or useful health information. Medical professionals agreed that Latinas generally get their health information through friends and family, and rated the media poorly in terms of serving Latinas’ health information needs. Since this data indicate that local news media are not serving these women’s needs as much as they could, we offer recommendations.
Student
Russian ethnic press in the U.S.: a comparative analysis • Nataliya Dmytrochenko, University of Florida • This explanatory study examines the structure and content of Russian ethnic press in the U.S. In particular, the paper investigates the topics that are pertinent to the Russian community, comparing the content of the two largest weeklies in New York and Los Angeles markets. Moreover, the paper elaborates on previous research of Lin & Song (2006), by identifying differences and similarities among Russian, Latino, Korean, and Chinese ethnic newspapers in greater Los Angeles area.
Memory of an Out-Group: (Mis)identification of Middle Eastern-Looking Men in News Stories about Crime • Jennifer Hoewe, The Pennsylvania State University; Tanner Cooke, Pennsylvania State University • This study examined White individuals’ (mis)identification of Middle Eastern- and Caucasian-looking men as portrayed in news stories about crime. Considering social identity theory, construal level theory, and the Arab/Muslim/Middle Eastern terrorist stereotype, this study predicted participants would correctly identify Caucasian-looking men and misidentify Middle Eastern-looking men as perpetrators. Results show that correct identification and misidentification of Caucasian-looking men is greater. Moderating variables are discussed. A new measure of attitudes toward Arabs and Muslims is recommended.
Economic Goals of Media Firms for Ethnic Groups and Media Firms Owned by Ethnic Groups • Xueying Luo, Ohio University • This study uses secondary data to examine the impact the ownership has on the economic goals of ethnic newspapers. A comparison between 24 newspapers owned by ethnic groups (media-by) and 24 newspapers for ethnic groups (media-for) showed a pattern consistent with media-for newspapers being more interested in making a profit, while media-by newspapers are more dedicated to serving the ethnic groups.
Basket Case: Framing ‘Linsanity’ and Blackness • Kathleen McElroy, University of Texas • In early 2012 commentators eagerly discussed the racial significance of “Linsanity,” when Jeremy Lin became an overnight sensation in the National Basketball Association, “America’s blackest network TV show.” A textual analysis reveals four frames that writers employed at the intersection of blackness and Linsanity: the novel underdog, a reminder of racism, a pioneer, and antidote to blackness. These frames illustrate hegemony and racial triangulation’s grip over Asian Americans and blacks in their struggle for cultural acceptance.
Growing Up Latina: Identity Exploration in Latina Blogs • Marilda Oviedo, The University of Iowa • This paper examines some of the blogs hosted on the Latinitas organization Web site. Members of the organization can post and update individual blogs. The purpose of this papers is two-fold: 1) to explore the ways the ways in which the blogs posts were used as a means of self-expression and 2) to examine how ethnic identity was conceptualized in the blog posts.
Unveiling the American-Muslim press: News agendas and frames in Islamic Horizons and Muslim Journal • Syed Saif Shahin, School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin • This study compares the coverage of Islamic Horizons, a news magazine run by immigrant American-Muslims, and Muslim Journal, a weekly newspaper run by black American-Muslims. Findings indicate both publications are overwhelmingly U.S.-centric, focusing on domestic political issues and community affairs rather than on the external Muslim world. But Islamic Horizons gives a lot more coverage to Muslims from the Middle East/South Asia, and Muslim Journal to black American-Muslims, reproducing a historical schism in American-Muslim society.
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