Rationale For Study
over represent African Americans as criminals and over represent white as victims as officers (old dixon study)
Why did they do the study?
Distorted portrayals occur on network news shows and what has been largely researched already is dated
lack of content analyzed the 24 hour cable news stations that have come to dominate national TV news coverage
Exclusively focused on blacks and violent
Hypothesis 1
we expect that whites will tend to be overrepresented as victims
Hypothesis 2
Latinos are associated with problem issues, we expect that they will be overrepresented as undocumented immigrants. furthermore we expect that muslims will be overrepresented as terrorists compared to GOVT reports
Hypothesis 3
question of whether cable news outlets differ from network news outlets in their treatment of social category and crime portrayals
Why is this study unique
include the flagship breaking news programs at each of the broadcast and cable networks
Type of study
content analysis
Methods
Sampling frame that included news shows aired between 2008-2012
EPSEM method two composite weeks of news programs (146, 90 with crime stories)
sampling without replacement technique
perpetrators defined as "person identified in the article as the alleged
Results
Law-Breaking and comparisons with an earlier study of networks
60 percent of network and cable programs and contained at least one perpetrator accused of committing an indexed crime
more white violent perpetrators (57%)
fewer black perpetrators (13%)
more
**Interreality
comparisons of race and crime on cable and networks
news
whites were like to be depicted as violent perpetrators of crime and cable news than to be arrested for violent crimes according to crime reports
whites were just as likely to be portrayed as homici