Black Americans voice worries about racist depictions in news media

• Aparna Sreevalsan
• 27 September, 2023

BLACK Americans voiced widespread worries about how they are portrayed in the news media, with the majority claiming to see racist or unfavourable portrayals and a lack of effort by journalists to cover more of their community, according to a new study.

Based on the Pew Research Centre, four out of every five Black Americans report seeing racist or insensitive images of their race either frequently or occasionally in the news.

With a poll of almost 5,000 Black individuals this past winter and follow-up focus groups, Pew conducted its first comprehensive examination of Black perceptions towards the media three years after George Floyd’s murder sparked a racial reckoning in the news media and further afield.

According to the study, 63 per cent of participants believe that news about Black people is frequently more negative than news about other racial or ethnic groups, while 28 per cent believe that it is fairly evenly distributed.
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harles Whitaker, dean of the Medill journalism school at Northwestern University, said: “It’s not surprising at all.

“We’ve known both anecdotally, and through my personal experience with the Black press, that Blacks have long been dissatisfied with their coverage.

“There’s a feeling that Black Americans are often depicted as perpetrators or victims of crime, and there are no nuances in the coverage,” Whitaker said.

The Pew study’s result that 57 per cent of respondents believe the media exclusively covers specific portions of Black communities, as opposed to nine per cent who believe a broad diversity is presented, reflects this perspective.

Young and old respondents in equal measure showed little optimism that conditions will change much in their lifetimes.

Although 40 per cent of survey respondents felt it was vital to have Black journalists cover problems of race and racial injustice, the survey respondents did not place much weight on the race of journalists when reporting on general news.

*The Pew Research Centre is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends.