How Journalist Contribute to Racial Biases

Charlie Savidge

cnsavidgereal@gmail.com

In the United States the calls for justice reform and the mending of race relations within the country haven't been as prevalent as they have been this year. While the stories of Blacks facing police brutality isn't a new one, the extreme cases of both George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have reignited the Black Lives Matter movement and protests calling for justice all around the world.

Even after all the videos and trials of these cases there hasn't been much change since these events occurred. While these movements are for progress and justice in these spaces they haven't been able to change the core problem at the heart of racial issues. It is that issues with race are often based out of misconceptions about a group of people that they don't know about. Dawn Turner, a columnist for Chicago Tribune talks about it in her piece, Journalists Must Train Their Brains to See Beyond Stereotypes.

Picture Source: Medium

 

In this piece, she states that, "We media types tend to cast blacks as the poster children for far too many of society’s ills. Not because it’s the truth, but because it fits the familiar trope and it’s convenient to think inside the box." She further backs this up citing statistics from a 2012 study conducted by the college of Wooster in which they found that "while Hispanics are underrepresented in media portrayals of the poor, African-Americans are overrepresented." Blacks made up 52 percent of the images despite only being a quarter of those living in poverty in that time.

There are ways to combat this as journalists, because whether the person writing or publishing the story realizes it, the images that they use can have a profound impact, especially since the visuals and headlines are read more than the articles themselves. Having the word poverty next to someone, particularly of a specific race can reinforce ideas and preconceptions that readers may have about the topic, even if they don't read the whole article.

Some things that an outlet or writer could do is try to show views that aren't as stereotyped and portray these issues proportionately. This can be done by having the awareness of this information and having a diverse staff and colleagues that they can run it by. 

Additionally the SPJ Code of Ethics guidelines comes into play here as well. The ethical value to minimize harm in particular. The second point in minimize harm says "Show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage. Use heightened sensitivity when dealing with juveniles, victims of sex crimes, and sources or subjects who are inexperienced or unable to give consent. Consider cultural differences in approach and treatment." 

If they are putting an image of someone or a group of people on a story they can ask them how they feel about it. There's a good chance that if there's a story about drug use, that a person who suffers from a drug addiction may not want to be representative of their community or in this case their particular ethnic group, even if they want to see change enacted to help the problem. Showing a specific person or group can change the perception of the problem and may lead to a negative impact towards that person or groups of people. Showing how an issue effects people from different groups may show that this problem is something that people from different lifestyles have as a commonality and they can relate to.

When journalist can work together to show an accurate portrayal and get stories out about issues in their respective communities, that is what can lead to change and lessen the impact and reinforcement of prejudices.