Race in Entertainment and the News, by Darrell West

-history

-contemporary situation

Race has been the most enduring controversy in American culture and politics
-true from country's founding to Civil War to current period

-Constitution explicitly condoned slavery

-fought a Civil War over slavery that led to its abolition in 1865

-spent much of last 100 years fighting over question of civil rights for all Americans and role of government in guaranteeing civil rights for all regardless of their race
-no understatement to say this is the most contentious social, economic, and political issue that we deal with

-as such, it is an excellent subject for studying role media play in covering controversial topics

Number of Important Questions
-how can we understand issue of race in American society and American politics?

-why are we so divided on this subject?

-what role do media play in framing racial issues, both in terms of news coverage and entertainment?
-how does race affect politics and policymaking?

A Look at Public Opinion and Voting--America's Racial Divide
-election divide--since 1964, 90% of African-Americans have voted Democratic, compared to 40% of whites
-policy divide--American-Americans most liberal demographic group in society on many issues
-90% of blacks feel govt should ensure equal employment opportunity, compared to 46% of whites
-racial gap in views of police and legal justice system
-majority of whites trust system, while majority of blacks do not

-RI court users--15 percentage point gap between whites and non-whites in views about fairness of Providence courts
-persistence of racial stereotypes--according to Kinder and Sanders in Divided by Color (p. 114), most white Americans "believe that blacks are less hard-working than whites, that blacks are more violent than whites, and that blacks are less intelligent than whites"
-1994 General Social Survey found that 44 percent of whites believe blacks are "lazy" (Gilens, p. 68), a view not shared by African Americans

-these are stunning numbers that illustrate existence of a racial divide

-and in many cases, these types of differences have existed over a long period of time

Racialization--Media Role in Group Divides
1) media coverage--book by Martin Gilens, Why Americans Hate Welfare, argues that news organizations have racialized poverty (65% of poor Americans shown on TV are black, while only 29% of poor actually are black)
-CBS poll revealed that 55% of Americans believe most welfare recipients are black when in reality most poor people and welfare recipients are white (Gilens, p. 139)
-hate welfare because whites believe welfare benefits undeserving blacks
-results from combination of racial stereotyping and patterns of media coverage
-policy consequences of these types of attitudes--passage of 1996 Welfare Reform Act ending welfare as entitlement program
2) role of political elites in framing racial issues
-elite debate is central component of public opinion
-racializing crime similar to welfare--use of racial codewords in 1988 presidential campaign (Bush and Willie Horton; Democrat silence on race)
-fear crimes of blacks attacking whites even though more assaults and murders committed by friends, family members, and acquaintances
-tough crime policies in last decade (longer sentences, mandatory sentences, three strikes and out, more prisons)

3) racial stereotyping in entertainment business
-some think entertainment shows don't matter and don't have political consequences

-how stereotyping contributes to racial misunderstanding
-differing portraits of whites and non-whites can have social and political consequences

-leads to resentment and conflict

-stereotyping also prevalent for other social groups

-Asian-Americas--portrayed as hard-working and industrious

-Latinos--great lovers and very excitable

-professional women--aggressive and opinionated (Barbara Bush comment in 1984 about Dem VP Ferraro--"rhymes with rich")

-case of Senator Joseph Lieberman and Jewish Americans in 2000 campaign (first Jewish American on national party ticket)

-interesting changes in how media deal with these issues

-persistence of racial stereotyping

-but plays out differently due to structural changes in mass media

-narrowcasting refers to targeting of distinctive audiences (as opposed to broadcasting to mass and undifferentiated audiences)

-shows expicitly target particular demographic niches (blacks, Latinos, white males, older women)

-seen shows with black characters that cater to African-American audiences

-same with Latinos and Asian Americans

-innovative Fox Network strategy of targeting youth and minority audiences in order to build audience over long run (Kristal Zook, Color by Fox)

-way to improve diversity in media coverage and entertainment (1,000 flowers blooming)

-danger of electronic segregation

-divide programs and viewing audience by racial group

-creates lack of understanding across races

-weakens shared sense of understanding that is vital to culture

-video: October 13, 1992 PBS Frontline documentary about the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings in the U.S. Senate that took place in October, 1991
-outlines dilemma for black community in President Bush's nomination of conservative African-American Clarence Thomas to fill the seat of liberal jurist Thurgood Marshall
-discusses the conflicting pulls of race and gender in this case and how Anita Hill's explosive charges of sexual harassment split the Senate Judiciary Committee, the American public, and male and female reporters

Interesting Facts about the Thomas/Hill hearings
-according to a Gallup national survey, 86 percent of Americans claimed to have watched at least one hour of the hearings
-in the 9 days between when the Hill accusations were made public and the Senate confirmation vote on October 15, 11 different national polls were conducted and widely publicized by media organizations
-at the time, a majority of Americans sided with Thomas on the sexual harassment charges. For example, an October 14, 1991 national poll revealed that 56 percent thought he was telling the truth while only 27 percent felt she was being truthful about the sexual harassment.
-with the passage of time, though, more Americans came to believe Hill over Thomas
-there were significant gender and racial gaps in the public response to this event. Whereas 63 percent of men believed Thomas, only 49 percent of women did. Seventy percent of blacks at the time of the hearings believed Thomas that he had not sexually harassed Anita Hill
-in terms of media coverage, male and female reporters often sparred verbally on the air over the credibility of the two witnesses. A study of all the ABC, CBS, and NBC stories from October 6 to 14, 1991 dealing with the hearings found that "male news sources favored Clarence Thomas, while female sources supported Professor Hill. Thomas earned positive ratings from 6 of every 7 males quoted in these television stories, as opposed to 1 of 3 from female sources. Seventy-five percent of female sources praised Hill, compared to 44 percent of male sources. A common complaint among women journalists about their male colleagues was "they just don't get it."

Demographic Composition of National Journalists
-95% of national journalists are white, 79% are male, 68% are from Northeast, and 93% are college graduates
-in terms of political views, 54% of reporters say they are liberal, compared to 20-25% of the American public
-around 80% of reporters say they vote Democratic in presidential elections
-the next generation of journalists (as measured by those attending journalism schools) is 50% female, 20% minority, and 85% liberal

Central Questions about the Media Coverage of this Controversy
-how do we evaluate the job the media did in covering the controversial issues surrounding sexual harassment and the Hill/Thomas hearings?
-what do we make of the enormous gender and racial differences that were exposed, both in terms of reporters and the reaction of the American public?
-does the unrepresentative demographic makeup of national journalists skew their coverage of race and gender?
-what role, if any, do media-sponsored polls play in covering contemporary issues? What role should they play?
-does the growing fragmentation of the media marketplace help the ability of the media to cover issues like sexual harassment?

-people more negative about Thomas and more favorable about Hill

-Americans more likely to believe Hill than Thomas

-how do portraits of Latinos and Asian Americans compare to those of African Americans?

-does fragmentation and tabloidization of contemporary media help racial stereotyping and racial relations?

-is it better to racialize (highlight racial aspects of culture and politics) or deracialize news coverage (deemphasize racial aspects)?

-is it possible for media and political elites to change stereotypes?

Donald Kinder and Elizabeth Sanders, Divided by Color, Univesity of Chicago Press, 1996

Martin Gilens, Why Americans Hate Welfare, University of Chicago Press, 1999

Jane Flax, The American Dream in Black and White: The Clarence Thomas Hearings, Cornell University Press, 1998

Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, Houghton Mifflin, 1994

David Brock, The Real Anita Hill: The Untold Story, Free Press, 1993

Anita Hill, Speaking Truth to Power, Doubleday, 1997