Altertude
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Joined: 28 Apr 2006
{Posts: 282 }
Location: 51st State
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 Posted: Wed 14 Jun 2006 11:06 Post subject: The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America |
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http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/13999.ctl
| Quote: | The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America.
Entman, Robert M. and Andrew Rojecki.
Living in a segregated society, white Americans learn about African Americans not through personal relationships but through the images the media show them. The Black Image in the White Mind offers the most comprehensive look at the intricate racial patterns in the mass media and how they shape the ambivalent attitudes of Whites toward Blacks.
Using the media, and especially television, as barometers of race relations, Robert Entman and Andrew Rojecki explore but then go beyond the treatment of African Americans on network and local news to incisively uncover the messages sent about race by the entertainment industry-from prime-time dramas and sitcoms to commercials and Hollywood movies. While the authors find very little in the media that intentionally promotes racism, they find even less that advances racial harmony. They reveal instead a subtle pattern of images that, while making room for Blacks, implies a racial hierarchy with Whites on top and promotes a sense of difference and conflict. Commercials, for example, feature plenty of Black characters. But unlike Whites, they rarely speak to or touch one another. In prime time, the few Blacks who escape sitcom buffoonery rarely enjoy informal, friendly contact with White colleagues—perhaps reinforcing social distance in real life.
Entman and Rojecki interweave such astute observations with candid interviews of White Americans that make clear how these images of racial difference insinuate themselves into Whites' thinking.
Despite its disturbing readings of television and film, the book's cogent analyses and proposed policy guidelines offer hope that America's powerful mediated racial separation can be successfully bridged.
"Entman and Rojecki look at how television news focuses on black poverty and crime out of proportion to the material reality of black lives, how black 'experts' are only interviewed for 'black-themed' issues and how 'black politics' are distorted in the news, and conclude that, while there are more images of African-Americans on television now than there were years ago, these images often don't reflect a commitment to 'racial comity' or community-building between the races. Thoroughly researched and convincingly argued."—Publishers Weekly
"Drawing on their own research and that of a wide array of other scholars, Entman and Rojecki present a great deal of provocative data showing a general tendency to devalue blacks or force them into stock categories."—Ben Yagoda, New Leader
Winner of the Frank Luther Mott Award for best book in Mass Communication and the Robert E. Lane Award for best book in political psychology. |
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/210758.html
| Quote: | The Entman-Rojecki Index of Race and the Media
1. While Black actors are now more numerous in film, it's an open question as to how well they're being represented. In the top movies of 1996:
- Black female movie characters shown using vulgar profanity: 89%.
- White female movie characters shown using vulgar profanity: 17%.
- Black female movie characters shown being physically violent: 56%.
- White female movie characters shown being physically violent: 11%.
- Black female movie characters shown being restrained: 55%.
- White female movie characters shown being restrained: 6%.
2. Television ads now show many Blacks and eschew stereotypes. However, hidden patterns of differentiation and distance emerge on close analysis. Not surprisingly, for instance, Blacks do not touch Whites in the ads, but (unlike Whites) they rarely even touch each other, conveying a subtle message of Black skin as taboo. A hierarchy of racial preference is embedded within the casting of commercials. Consider these figures from a large prime time sample:
- Of the 105 commercials for autos or trucks that showed only one race, the percentage all-White: 100%.
- Of the 74 commercials for perfumes that showed only one race, the percentage all-White: 98%.
- Of the 47 commercials for jewelry or cosmetics that showed only one race, the percentage all-White: 100%.
3. Over 70% of Black characters in the most highly rated TV entertainment shows have professional or management positions. However well-intentioned, this utopian reversal imposes a formal distance between Black and White actors, hobbling the audience's sympathetic imagination. Blacks' supervisory roles isolate their characters from close peer relationships. Among these actors, 92% of interactions with Whites are restricted to job-related tasks.
4. Network news tends to "ghettoize" Blacks. Increasingly, African Americans appear mostly in crime, sports and entertainment stories. Rarely are Blacks shown making an important contribution to the serious business of the nation. Sampling network news shows:
- Number of soundbites on foreign affairs uttered by Whites: 99; by Blacks: 1.
- Number of soundbites on economics uttered by Whites: 86; by Blacks: 1.
- Number of soundbites on electoral politics uttered by Whites: 79; by Blacks: 0.
- Number of soundbites on sports and entertainment uttered by Whites: 35; by Blacks: 11.
- Number of soundbites on crime uttered by Whites: 149; by Blacks: 24.
5. Black defendants are simply treated differently on local TV news from their White counterparts:
- Times more likely that a mug shot of the accused will appear in a local TV news report when the defendant is Black rather than White: 4.
- Times more likely that the accused will be shown physically restrained in a local TV news report when the defendant is Black rather than White: 2.
- Times less likely that the name of the accused will be shown on screen in a local TV news report when the defendant is Black rather than White: 2
6. "Telegenic" figures aren't always the most representative leaders. Some statistics from 1994:
- Black adults stating that Jesse Jackson represents Black people "very well": 40%.
- Black adults stating that Louis Farrakhan represents Black people "very well": 11%.
- Black adults stating they had "never heard of" Jesse Jackson: 0%.
- Black adults stating they had "never heard of" Louis Farrakhan: 22%.
- Stories about, or soundbites from, Jesse Jackson on ABC World News: 13.
- Stories about, or soundbites from, Louis Farrakhan on ABC World News: 25.
7. The media sowed discord during the affirmative action debate of the 1990s despite the considerable common ground between Blacks and Whites. Reporters often predicted affirmative action would be one of the key issues in the 1996 election because of the "rage" among Whites.
- Percentage of survey respondents naming affirmative action as their top priority in voting against a presidential candidate, 1996: 1%.
- Percentage of White men ("angry" or not) surveyed who favored affirmative action programs as is or with reforms: 61%.
- Percentage of White women surveyed who favored affirmative action programs as is or with reforms: 76%.
- Percentage of White "persons on the street" supporting affirmative action in a sample of network news: 12.5%.
- Percentage opposing: 87.5%.
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