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News reports, televisjon and movies, and commercials communicate stereotypes about perpetrators and victims of crime, gender roles, age groups, and numerous other diversity issues.2a People tend to believe what they see on television and read on news Web sites, implicitly trusting writers and reporters to be objective conveyors of what is actually occurring. yet those who write and choose stories are not unbiased. lnstead, they are products of a society that views certain groups as more likely to commit crimes, to have large famjlies they are unable to support, to be illegal immigrants, and have other negative biases reflecting racial, ethnic, gender, and other stereotypes. Although Whites commit a greater proportion of drug+elated crimes, Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be shown on television being arrested for such crimes. Although most crime is intraracial (e.g., Black on Black or White on White), news repofts are more likely to portray Black on White crime.2s people of color are also more prominently portrayed as perpetrators of crime in the news. One study found that over fourteen weeks, people of color were shown to be crime perpetrators in 20% more cases than would be predicted based on FBI statistics.26

Misperception. Blacks and Latinos commit more crimes than Whites.

Realrtv; Blacks and Larinos aTe mot? tikely to be arrested than Whites ancl even more likely to be depicted on television being arrested than their actual representcll;on among drrests.

The Mddia,and the promul ation;of Stereotypes

Chapter 2: Theories and Thinking about Drversitv

ln addition to biased reporting of crimes, the media's use of divisive or misleading terminology causes resistance to diversity. Affirmative action does not mean quotas, for example, but if the news media equate them, people will be more likely to equate them also. Women are working at some of the highest participation rates in history, but if 60 Minutes reports that large numbers of executive women are leaving the workforce to stay at home, people will believe this is true. During the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Yahool News (online) displayed photos of the flooding in New Orleans and people wading through the water with food, drawing the attention of many people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Whites were reported to be wading aft.er finding food, while a young Black male was reported to be wading after looting a store. Explanations that the photos were taken by two different reporters and that the descriptive bylines were the reporters' words did little to reduce the perceptions of bias.27 After complaints, at the request of the photo owner, yahool removed the photo of the Whites, while the one showing the Black man remained.

OuEslolvs ro CoNstDER 1. ln addition to racial, ethnie and gender

stereotyping, what other kinds of stereo_ types have you seen in the media? How do frequent portrayals of such stereo_ types affed peopleb perceptions of their veracity?

t:a As a . :: \\'aS

2*Nelso, (2002). see nlro ar"rr".ro, p.,c., *"r., ".

a, u. crrro-"", i. i. 1irrr1. ,.6"" rrr. no.a* c.*r. rrur,. oo,r,"ni a so.r"iIdentity Approach.,' Current Directions ln psychologi;dl iuence, g(51:1.52_155.25 For a discussion of intraraciar .ri-. .o-p"..i urr, i"i.rrJrr rr._, ,* Grorr, s. R., Jacoby, K., Matheson, D., Montgomery, N., &Patil' S' (2005)' "Exonerations in the united states: 1989 rhrors}' zo0:." rn" prrr*|ilCrnmal 1au and criminology,g5: s24-560.tnRn-t" D'' Jamieson, K' H, & d.c";,.;;'N j.;;r;;; "The Treatment of persons of color in Locar relevision News: EthnicBlame Discourse or Realistic Group conflicti" c:o***,*irorio, irr;;;;;:;:(r),;;1:;r, cited in Nelson (2002).

"):lltl,l3i'i; :'i,'#"':: s)' "\rhd;;i..,;;'i;;;;;', Artermath, picru*, xi.r. Up a Dirrerent ri,i ur i.,,p", t.,, New york

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