Book Smart

Hemant Shah, professor of journalism and mass communication and Asian American studies, and Michael C. Thorton, professor of Afro-American studies, Asian American studies and sociology; “Newspaper Coverage of Interethnic Conflict: Competing Visions of America,” Sage Publications, 2003.

America certainly seems to have bobbled race relations. What to do? The situation is far from clear, and real solutions don’t come easily. United States foreign policy, influxes of new immigrants and increasing global economic interdependence all contribute to an increasingly complex political economy across the country.

Our perception of the issues comes, as do our perceptions of most things, from “the media.” However, Shah and Thornton argue that there is a distinct difference between mainstream and ethnic media coverage.

Looking at the ways in which general circulation and minority newspapers in Miami, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles approached interethnic conflict, the authors conclude that mainstream publications perpetuate ideologies of white privilege and racial hierarchy while ethnic papers tend to challenge them. In addition, local histories of race relations, as well as the overall national race climate, also were found to be important factors in the coverage of race topics.

“Our research suggests that mainstream press depictions of race relations are rife with stereotypes and unfounded assumptions about people of color. Solutions to racial conflicts revolve around an ideology that presumes ‘the problem of race’ is unrelated to white privilege and the control of major institutions by whites,” Shah says. “The problem is, of course, that most of our understanding of race relations comes via the mainstream press, which much of the public assumes has no particular agenda—that the press is ‘objective’ and will speak to the complexity involved in these [racial] relationships.”

In contrast, the public—including members of the general media—assumes that newspapers published by ethnic minorities are biased, Shah says.

“While links to racial agendas are clearly part of what ethnic newspapers are about, they still provide a much more nuanced and sophisticated view of race relations,” he says.

Says Thornton, “Given that political and other opinion leaders often reference elite, mainstream newspapers for policy suggestions, it is not surprising that we don’t do as well as we might in bringing about better relations between the races.”

—Barbara Wolff