Whitewashed news

by Cristina Azocar

The purpose of local news is to cover the concerns and issues of a particular community. Why then, does the television news of two of America's most ethnically diverse markets look the same as the television news of America's most homogenous markets? Don Heider examines this issue in White News: Why Local News Programs Don't Cover People of Color (Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000).

White News uses in-depth interviews to illustrate how the ownership of television stations and the practice of news production work together to systematically exclude people of color from news coverage. Heider, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, spent five weeks at stations in Albuquerque and Honolulu interviewing television news journalists, managers and community members that ranged from mayors to activists.

Heider's conclusions may not be news in terms of previous research that has found that local news ignores people of color in many ways. He replicates previous studies that show that people of color are usually anchors and not decision makers, thereby distorting viewers' perceptions of the racial-makeup of stations. White News reinforces findings focusing on television news reality that people of color only exist at festivals or as criminals, which serves to reinforce stereotypes and the notion that people of color primarily exist outside the bounds of legitimate social behavior. The study further demonstrates that those with power, legitimacy and money and who are within a certain physical and social geography have better opportunities to access the mass audience by means of television. Finally, Heider's study augments the cry for context in news stories by illustrating that news workers often know nothing about the history of the location they are covering.

What Heider does do is first go beyond the black and white paradigm of television coverage. White News focuses on the problems of Native Americans, Hispanics and Asians and the particular problems with media coverage they have had in Albuquerque and Honolulu. This is one of the few studies that addresses the Native American issue of sovereignty in news coverage and the first that analyzes it from two locations with very different community dynamics and concerns. Second, the book adds a human element unavailable in content analysis by laying side by side the perceptions of the white men in power with those of the marginalized community members. For example, the assignment editor in Albuquerque had this to say about his station's coverage of crime: "Excessive coverage of people of color and crime? I don't think there is." In contrast, a Chicano activist in Albuquerque said, "We get a lot of publicity that's usually on all the crime we have."

Finally, Heider offers possible remedies to what ails the news in its biased and lacking coverage of people of color and their communities. The suggestions come directly from those he interviewed. A veteran reporter advocated for more people in the field and less in the station. A Native-American attorney recommended stations reach out to communities by having reporters assigned to a particular community. Community organizers proposed training sessions for both community members and journalists.

White News should be required reading for both broadcast and print journalists. Moreover, it should be taken as a lesson for news managers to better their coverage not only for ethical reasons, but for economic ones.