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In everything from the policies that regulate media industries to the practices of the organizations that produce the messages to the usage patterns of the consumers that choose them, mass media are implicated in real-world interracial/ethnic dynamics. Yet, despite the obvious associations between media and issues of race and ethnicity, a comprehensive effort aimed at documenting and addressing these links has not been undertaken. The current issue, Media Representations of Race and Ethnicity: Implications for Identity, Intergroup Relations, and Public Policy, endeavors to do just that. The merits of such an effort are articulated in this introduction to the volume alongside a review of the current state of the research in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of research on media counter-stereotyping of race/ethnicity has tended to employ positive portrayals or counter-stereotypical exemplars as a primary strategy in eliciting positive attitudes among White participants. In contrast, this article reports the results of an experiment on the unique role of affective responses to media messages as a mechanism in inducing greater feelings of connectedness with a diversity of racial/ethnic groups. Our focus is on the affective response of elevation specifically, which refers to feelings of being moved, touched, and inspired by images of people engaged in morally beautiful acts such as love, generosity, and kindness. Results show that the experience of elevation in response to inspiring videos was associated with heightened feelings of overlap between the self and humanity, with this overlap associated with greater feelings of connectedness with those from a diversity of racial/ethnic groups. This connection was also associated with more favorable attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From an extended contact hypothesis ( ECH) framework, mass-media portrayals of interracial relationships may encourage positive attitudes toward such relationships. Caucasian participants ( N = 218) indicated examples of media portrayals of Black- White interracial relationships, attitudes toward Blacks, attitudes toward interracial relationships, degree of identification with Whites, and the degree to which Blacks are included in self-representations. Supporting our hypotheses, extended contact with Black- White relationships via media portrayals was associated with more positive attitudes toward Blacks and interracial relationships. These relationships were mediated by the degree to which Blacks are included in self-representations. This study furthers understanding of ECH by including representations of dyadic relationships and suggests an avenue for the creation of interventions for improving attitudes toward interracial relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We outline the role of race, racial resentment, and attentiveness to news in structuring public opinion toward the prosecution of the Jena Six, the name given to six African-American high school students who beat a white student, five of whom were subsequently charged with attempted second-degree murder. We rely on a telephone survey of 428 registered voters collected in the aftermath of the protests in Jena, Louisiana. Public reactions were heavily filtered by race and associated with measures of racial resentment. African Americans followed news about the protests more closely, believed race was the most important consideration in the decision to prosecute, and believed the decision to prosecute was the wrong decision. Racially conservative white respondents were less likely to believe race was the most important consideration in the decision to prosecute and were more likely to believe that the decision to prosecute was the right decision. Consistent with theories of agenda setting and framing, attentiveness to the news influenced perceptions regarding the importance of race in the decision to prosecute but not whether the decision was the right decision. At least within the context of the Deep South, race and racial attitudes continue to be an important predictor of public reactions to racially charged events. Attentiveness to the news influenced the lens through which events were interpreted, but not perceptions of whether the outcome was the right decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employing a new policy of “check all that apply,” the Census Bureau accommodated a mushrooming multiracial lobby demanding that its members be allowed a right to self-identification. With its implied shifting meaning of race, newspapers portrayed the reaction to this change as a firestorm of debate along racial fault lines, highlighted by Black-American inferences that this was a perilous decision. Using textual analysis, I examine from 1996 to 2006 how five Black-American and three White-American newspapers characterized multiracial people. White-American papers framed the discussion in two ways: (a) multiracial people epitomize a new era in which race has lost its bite, and (b) Black America stands in the way of their gaining their civil rights. There were also two frames for the Black-American papers: (a) The lobby advocates individual identity and is undergirded by denial or distancing from Blackness, and (b) that focus undermines Black America's future by playing into the misguided notion that race is socially insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a series of voting rights cases, the U.S. Supreme Court held that race-based redistricting, particularly the intentional formation of majority–minority districts (districts in which voters of color constitute a majority of eligible voters) may be unconstitutional if race was the predominant factor in the formation of the district. The Court stated that “redistricting legislation that is so bizarre on its face that it is unexplainable on grounds other than race” may violate the Constitution because of the messages such districts send to the public (Shaw v. Reno, 1993). Yet neither the Court nor social scientists have examined whether the existence of race-conscious majority–minority districts sends messages to voters and what the nature of these messages may be. This research begins to address this scientific issue. In a quantitative content analysis, we examined messages about racial redistricting conveyed to citizens via the print media. Our sample consisted of 355 newspaper articles about redistricting included in the Lexis–Nexis database between 1990 and 2005. We found that newspaper coverage of racial districting contains messages to citizens about the motives involved in redistricting, the individuals and groups who are responsible for it, and its actual and expected effects. This finding is consistent with the Supreme Court's assumption that districts, particularly bizarrely shaped ones, convey distinct messages to voters. The specific messages communicated varied in important ways across the articles. Newspapers in states subject to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act because of their history of discrimination against voters of color covered racial redistricting differently than states not subject to Section 5. We discuss the legal and theoretical implications of these findings for understanding the role of race in legislative redistricting efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, considerable energy has been focused on extending the mandate of anti-racism. Modern (or symbolic) racism and discursive psychology have argued that racism has taken on more covert forms. A longitudinal examination of newspaper coverage of two important race-related newsprint stories in New Zealand (involving Winston Peters, Tuku Morgan and New Zealand First) identified discourses of ‘plausible deniability’ involved in warranting or defending statements about minorities against accusations of racism. We discuss implications of symbolic politics for minorities who are perceived to have violated societal norms, and show how nationalism is used as a framework for denying racist intent. Analyses of historical context show how ‘race’ forms only one lens from which to view issues of intergroup relations. While the press was sensitive to issues of racism, they demonstrated little awareness of concurrent issues of neo-liberal economics, or market fundamentalism. Anti-racism may be motivated not only by the ideals of egalitarianism, but also by underlying dynamics of economic power in a global economy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a rap that was performed on New Zealand television in 1995 as part of an advertisement for Primo. Primo is a banana, chocolate, or strawberry flavored milk drink aimed at the teenage market. The rapper was white, had an American accent, a hyper-muscular physique, and was dressed in a singlet, shorts, and a baseball cap. The advertisement began with the printed name of the rapper, "Ron McQuinn--busboy from Miami." The rap was shot without any musical accompaniment. Ron was filmed in black and white against a plain backdrop. After Ron concludes his rap with "Let's go with the flow," a series of twenty sequential still photos in vibrant colors were shown at 10 frames per second. As an American living in New Zealand, the author found this advertisement disturbing. The apparent commodification of racial violence and hatred used to sell a product was offensive and disquieting. While not ignoring the imperatives of the newly emerging transnational market economics of the postmodern world, the author began to wonder how the relations of representations connected with a more local interpretation and orientation.

Examines the portrayal of African American men in the mass media in the United States. Containment of Afro-American men in the 1990s; Evaluation of Afro-American men in terms of imagery; Subjectivity of the imagery produced in the mass media.