Robert LeBailly

“If it bleeds, it leads,” is the rule of thumb for most local TV news programs today. But how does this steady stream of carnage play with African-Americans and Latinos—who so often are both victims and villains of these pieces?

A recent IPR-Medill School of Journalism study finds that a majority of black and Latino Chicagoans rate overall local TV news as “good,” but rank coverage of their own communities as only “fair”— negative, unbalanced, and stereotypical.

The study was conducted in early 1998 by Cynthia Linton and Robert LeBailly of Medill, with support from the Human Relations Foundation of Chicago. They surveyed 207 local African-Americans and 133 Latinos. Ironically, the two “minority” groups now comprise 60% of Chicago’s population, 40% African-American and 20% Latino.

	Cynthia Linton

Nearly two-thirds of the respondents believe their racial and ethnic groups are portrayed inaccurately by local TV news programs. Half of the black viewers and nearly one-third of

Latinos think the stories focus on the worst aspects of their community and this unbalanced coverage just reinforces negative racial stereotypes. The black viewers blame this in part on the tendency of reporters to select the most unappealing and inarticulate African-Americans as spokespersons.

As one typical respondent put it, “They always pick the worst, ugliest one out of the crowd. They pick smart young white kids out, but not black ones who can really summarize what went on.”

Latinos are more positive about TV news than blacks, although they too complain about negative stories. Scanty coverage of their communities is another sore point. “They only show news about immigration stories. You never hear about Latino neighborhoods,” said one respondent. To compensate, the Latino respondents watch the two Spanish-language TV news channels an average of 3.1 days a week. They say these channels also do a better job of covering international issues, particularly Latin American.

To balance this negative press, nearly 40% of both black and Latino viewers would like to see more good news, “even if just once a week, for 15 minutes,” said one. “I’d like to see more positive things about the community. You know, kids winning awards, going off to college, and not just killing each other,” added another viewer.

It was less clear whether viewers think local TV news helps or hurts race relations in the city: 48% said it makes no difference, 19% said it helps, 22% said it hurts, and 12% said it both helps and hurts.

Respondents watch local TV news an average of 5.6 days a week, compared to 3.6 days for reading newspapers, the study found. Slightly more than 50% watch the news every day. African-American viewers overwhelmingly (71%) favor ABC’s Channel 7, while just over half the Latinos preferred the NBC affiliate, Channel 5. These results tally with a clear preference for black news anchors among African-American respondents. Walter Jacobson, of Fox Channel 32, the lone white anchor among the top choices, was the most popular among Latinos, preferred by 20% of them. The authors speculate that the lack of Latino anchors may explain the relative indifference of that group when asked about its favorites.

For more evenhanded coverage, Linton and LeBailly recommend that media managers hire more Latinos as reporters, anchors, writers, and producers. They think a task force could help improve broadcasters’ understanding of Latino culture and neighborhoods and that news of economic development, schools, or local business, for example, could better balance the negative reporting.

Finally, the authors urge reporters to be more racially and ethnically inclusive in their on-the-spot interviews and more sensitive in their choice of minority spokespersons.