Good Guys Are Still Always in White? Positive Change and Continued Misrepresentation of Race and Crime on Local Television News

A content analysis of a random sample of Los Angeles television news programs was used to assess racial representations of perpetrators, victims, and officers. A series of comparisons were used to assess whether local news depictions differed from outside indicators of social reality. In a significa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCommunication research Vol. 44; no. 6; pp. 775 - 792
Main Author Dixon, Travis L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.08.2017
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Content analysis
Crime
Indicators
News media
Race
Racism
Representations
Social reality
Studies
Television
Television news
Victims
Los Angeles California
United States > US
African Americans
local news
crime
Latinos
blacks
race/ethnicity
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Summary:A content analysis of a random sample of Los Angeles television news programs was used to assess racial representations of perpetrators, victims, and officers. A series of comparisons were used to assess whether local news depictions differed from outside indicators of social reality. In a significant departure from prior research, they revealed that perpetration was accurately depicted on local TV news. Blacks, in particular, were accurately depicted as perpetrators, victims, and officers. However, although Latinos were accurately depicted as perpetrators, they continued to be underrepresented as victims and officers. Conversely, Whites remained significantly overrepresented as victims and officers. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of incognizant racism, ethnic blame discourse, structural limitations, and the guard dog perspective of news media.
ISSN:0093-6502
1552-3810
DOI:10.1177/0093650215579223