“Action News” – The Mother’s Milk of Racial Prejudice

 

Here’s an exercise many will find eye-opening. Go to the WSB Channel 2 news video website.  Count the number of stories of Black men committing violent crimes. Now count the stories of Black men playing sports. Then look for any other portrayals of Black men.

When you’re done with that, imagine yourself a typical white suburbanite watching this broadcast. What do you see?

According to a study quoted in the Washington Post, “If all you knew about black families was what national news outlets reported, you are likely to think African Americans are overwhelmingly poor, reliant on welfare, absentee fathers and criminals, despite what government data show.” The study included a systematic content analysis of local news stories spanning 2015 and 2016. Based on results, WSB-TV, though a salient example, is no exception.

The problem is that, while many of the anchors and on-the-scene reporters in front of the camera are highly competent Black journalists, the folks writing what they say are overwhelming white. As news writers feed their stories to screenwriters, the resulting racial myopia extends from the newsroom to the supposedly liberal bastion of Hollywood.

Contrary to popular belief, biases in news media (conservative, progressive, whatever) do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of media ownership. Networks, publishers, entertainment and social media do not go into business to proselytize on behalf of political causes. They’re in the business of entertaining us. Televised broadcasts, with their almost total reliance on ad revenues must maintain their ratings to promote the products their advertisers sell. To do that, they must assure us that our prejudices, whatever they may be, are correct. Rather than informing us, they tell us what we want to hear.

In an era where growing numbers of Americans have concluded that bigotry, homophobia and misogyny are cool, this has become increasingly corrosive. Diversity and inclusiveness in the media have, to use Richard Prince’s term, stagnated. Relying on broadcast media to clean up their act will never work so long as their advertisers continue to back the status quo. When concerned groups begin to apply pressure on corporate sponsors, backed by the threat of boycott, then perhaps we’ll see some real change.