Suburban news disparities race, representation, and media bias in Nassau County, NY
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This study of N=468 news stories from N=10 newspapers and broadcast outlets (January to June 2022) examined how people of color perceive and are portrayed in reports on six primarily Black/Hispanic communities in central Nassau County, NY, a Long Island suburb of New York City. This mixed-methods research project applied a multi-dimensional approach to examining quantitative content and qualitative textual data, probing not only what was reported in coverage on the neighborhoods, but also what was excluded. After analyzing more than 2,800 faces and 1,000 sources, this study revealed a stark imbalance in coverage. People of color appeared less frequently than their share of the local population, while White individuals were disproportionately featured. Additionally, it identified nearly three dozen instances of sensationalism and symbolic annihilation, in which people of color were left out of coverage--in imagery, text, or both--or were overshadowed by White sources who were given priority in reporting. Often, the news outlets centered the White perspective, even in many stories that were solely on one of the six neighborhoods. This pattern reflected a structural skew toward Whiteness in coverage.
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M.A.