Document Type
Article
Abstract
The ways the media portray black and white people are present in all facets of life, ranging from the coverage of crime to the perception of beauty. For instance, researchers have looked at the influence of media framing on the public’s perception of people of color (Abare, 2018). However, scholars have overlooked how the media portray black and white victims and suspects across the ideological spectrum. I argue that the discrepancies in the language surrounding suspects and victims present throughout conservative and mainstream media allow for the perpetuation of biases and stereotypes in the public mind. In order to understand how journalists frame the stories they tell about black and white victims and suspects, I conducted a textual analysis of news articles that were interpreted though three ideological prisms: conservative, mainstream, and the black press. My research points to ways that society can take steps to put an end to media biases. This is important because it showcases not only the effects biased perceptions can have on the integrity of the information we receive, but also the undeniable effects of language on the everyday lives of black people.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Repository Citation
Nolasco, Anais, "An Open Letter to the Editor: How the Media’s Language Perpetuates Bias" (2019). Honors Theses - Providence Campus. 40.
https://scholarsarchive.jwu.edu/student_scholarship/40