White News: Why Local News Programs Don't Cover People of Color (Lea's Communication) - Hardcover

Heider, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805834753 ISBN 13: 9780805834758

Publisher: Routledge, 2000

Synopsis

Is TV news racist? If the purpose of local news is to cover individual communities and to present issues of interest and concern to local audiences, why are local newscasts so similar in markets around the country? These are the questions that motivated Heider's research, leading to the development of this book. Recognizing that local news is the outlet through which most people get their news, Heider ventured into the local television newsrooms in two moderate-size, culturally diverse U.S. markets to observe the news process. In this report, he uses his insider's perspective to examine why local television news coverage of people of color does not occur in more meaningful ways.

Heider examines the perceptions of racism and ethnicity, and addresses such dichotomies as "white" news (content determined by white managers) being delivered by non-white news anchors, thus giving the appearance of "non-white" news. He also considers how coverage of minorities influences viewers' perceptions of their minority neighbors. Heider then sets forth a new theoretical concept--incognizant racism--as a way of explaining how news workers consistently ignore news in significant portions of the communities they cover.

This contribution to the minorities and media discussion provides important insights into the newsroom decision-making process and the sociology and structure of newsrooms. It is required reading for all who are involved in news reporting, mass communication, media and minority studies, and cultural issues in today's society.

About this title

About the Author:

Don Heider is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches reporting, writing and qualitative methods. He has served as the Radio and Television Journalism division chair for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and as a journalism education representative on the board of the Radio and Television News Director's Association. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a reporter, producer, photographer and manager in television news, earning five Emmy awards and an Edward R. Murrow award.

Review:

"It is insightful, precise, yet very clear in its language." -- Federico Subervi, Dept. of Radio, TV Film, University of Texas

"It's an important work and well-told. I'm afraid it made me even more pessimistic about the state of local news." -- Bill Moyers

"This is a superlative look at the grievous coverage, or lack of coverage, given communities of color by local newscasters." -- Marty Gonzalez, KRON-TV/San Francisco State University

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0805834753
• ISBN 13: 9780805834758
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 126