Stand-alone News Photographs Portray Less Diverse, More Segregated Communities

Abstract

How diverse is news content when criteria traditionally used to judge newsworthiness do not apply? As a first step in understanding presence of diversity when newspaper content is not beholden to traditional newsworthiness criteria, this study examines visual framing of standalone newspaper photographs that capture a realistic slice of everyday life.1Despite argument that the distinctive qualities of pictures make study of visual communication especially relevant to concerns of framing theory,2 framing researchers have virtually ignored visual component of news. A content analysis of 131 framing studies published in 15 international communication journals found 83 percent of studies completely neglected visuals and only 5 percent of framing studies coded visuals.3 By examining stand-alone photographs, this study will add to little studied visual component of framing while providing insight into diversity of photographs that depict a slice of life.What is mainstream news media's record on diversity in news coverage? Historically, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans have been excluded from news.4 After criticisms and pressure, press began to include racial and ethnic groups in its coverage, but empirical literature shows people of color and issues relevant to them have primarily been under-represented.5 Additionally, people of color have been covered using 18 stereotypes.6 African Americans in particular have been stereotyped in news as criminals, poor, entertainers/celebrities and sports figures.7Races and ethnic groups have also been segregated in news. Segregation has been found in use of expert sources in network television news8 and story assignments in local TV news9 and newspapers.10 Research also has found an increase in African American sources in local TV news11 and Latino sources in newspaper stories12 when numbers of overall sources increases.Because purpose of standalone newspaper photographs is to communicate a slice of everyday life visually, independent of traditional newsworthiness criteria, question becomes: Are African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans included in that slice of life, and, if so, how are they framed?Research QuestionsThis study will address that issue by answering following research questions:RQ1:What is racial and ethnic composition of stand-alone, slice-of-life newspaper photographs and is there diversity or segregation?RQ2:What is relationship between number of people in photograph and racial and ethnic composition of photograph?The first research question builds on literature that has found segregation in contemporary news coverage.13 The second research question expands literature that has found diversity increases with increased numbers.14 Answering both research questions will contribute to diversity in news literature and little researched visual framing literature.MethodTo answer research questions, stand-alone, slice-of-life photographs published in six newspapers over a three-month period were content analyzed. The newspapers, which were selected to represent diversity in geography, ownership and population, included: The New York Times national edition (The New York Times Co.), San Diego Union-Tribune (Copley), Courier-Journal, Louisville (Gannett), Kansas City Star (McClatchy), Orlando Sentinel (Tribune Co.) and Houston Chronicle (Hearst).For cities in which newspapers were based, mean population percentage of whites was 56 percent; mean population percentage of African Americans was 25 percent; Latinos represented a mean population percentage of 19 percent while Asian Americans represented a mean percentage of 6 percent. The smallest mean population percentage was Native Americans at .5 percent. …