Assignment

Does Race or Gender Matter in News Reporting

Content Analysis of TV News - Detecting Bias &/or Stereotypes

Content analysis is a systematic method of analyzing the content of a message. Data collection involves producing a quantitative description of the message under study. Findings are then analyzed and interpreted according to some concept or theory.

Task:

Part #1: Select a local newscast, over the next few weeks watch 2 entire newscasts at different times (morning, noon, evening or late night) on a weekday (Monday - Friday).

Part #2: Select a national news program, over the next few weeks watch 2 entire news programs, choose different programs and times.

? For each program, record the roles of each person: sole anchor, co-anchor, weathercasters; their gender; and their race (to the best of your ability). Identify the field reporters as well.

? Track and list in order each story reported during the newscasts. Give a brief description of each story.

? Identify the type of news each person is reporting - for example, local "hard" news stories (serious, unemotional, timely or need to be reported now: politics, government, business, military, disasters); local "soft" news or feature stories (more entertaining than informative, not as immediate, often told from an emotional human perspective: the arts, style, health care, parenting, women's issues, celebrities); weather; sports; etc.

? Research the news station/network: Include background, history of the station/show, identify the producers/editors (the "gatekeepers" in charge of setting the news agenda.

? For the local newscasts: research the station to determine the coverage area. Find the demographics for the coverage area: overall population, gender, race.

? Here is an example of the demographics for the state of Michigan.
? Here is an example for the city of Detroit:
? Here is a link to the U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts.

Assessing your findings

? What percent of the anchors are men? What percent are women? What percent are minorities? What percent of field reporters are men? Women? Minorities? What about the in-studio sports anchors? Weathercasters?

? What stories do men cover? What stories do women cover? What stories do minorities cover? Do you note patterns? Differences? What are those? Are there differences in gender or race depending on the type of story being covered? Who has more "air time"?

? What's your analysis? Based on the very minimal amount of information you've collected, do you believe the station you analyzed does a good job of representing the community it serves?

? Are the percent of anchors and reporters representative of the overall population of the coverage area? Compare your statistics.

? Analyze what your findings might mean in terms of how well audiences are being served, what sort of representation there is for men, women, and minorities and the types of stories they're doing. Perhaps one group covers more "hard" news and another more "soft" news. Why might that be? Are there any stereotypical roles being played out? Might we view one gender or race as better able to handle more "serious" news? What might this say about social power?

Written Assessment

Draft your assignment in a Word doc and upload to BB or create directly in BB (if you opt to create in BB, I suggest you copy/paste the text and save a copy in your computer. It's a good idea in case of any technical issues with BB. )

I'm looking for about 500-750 words. Use full sentences in analysis. Be sure to proofread before submitting (spelling and grammar matter ... this is a journalism class!)