Contextualizing the black church: Analysis of newspaper coverage in the Obama–Wright controversy

Abstract

This study analyzed the contextualized reporting about the black church in newspaper coverage of the 2008 US presidential primary campaign, during which inflammatory sermons by Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama’s pastor, threatened to undermine Obama’s campaign. Given that the news media has been criticized for failing to adequately contextualize the black church in the controversy, we examined articles from major US newspapers for their use of two news routines, selection of news sources and explanations of the black church, to provide an understanding of Wright’s sermons. Journalists used Obama and Wright as sources in the stories more than black church sources (80% vs. 62%). Stories also depicted Wright’s church relationship with Obama and Wright’s achievements (50%–61%). Journalists’ and Obama’s explanations of the black church (59%–61%) were comparable to depictions of Wright’s sermons, their tone, and Wright and Pfleger as campaign problems (56%–67%). In the controversy’s latter phase, depictions of Wright and Pfleger as problems occurred more than black church and Obama’s explanations, but depictions of Obama’s break from Wright occurred more than Wright’s defenses. Journalists used several strategies to incorporate black church explanations into their stories; implications for teaching writing routines are discussed.