Document Type
Honors Thesis
Abstract
The media plays an integral role in modern American society. On any given day one person may read news stories from newspapers, television, magazines and social media that all cover the same story from varying angles. This allows news stories to be sensationalized, and the effect it has on public opinion is extremely influential. Therefore, the media’s reporting of crime oftentimes perpetuates stereotypes and biases towards certain races more than others. I conducted a content analysis of news coverage on three black male victims and three white male offenders to examine whether or not a bias existed when it came to the media’s coverage of how race factored into the story depending on who was the victim/offender. I found that despite the fact that the black males were victims and that white males were the offenders, the black males were marginalized as “thugs” and “criminals” whereas the white males’ crimes were rationalized and questioned.
Publication Date
5-1-2017
Language
English
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Adams, Destiny, "HOW MEDIA TODAY INFLUENCE PUBLIC OPINION ON BLACK VICTIMS AND WHITE OFFENDERS WITH REGARDS TO RACE AND CRIME" (2017). 2017 Spring Honors Capstone Projects. 22.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/honors_spring2017/22