Florida Times Union Picture Content Analysis

I was brought up to believe all people are equal. We may have different skin color or some have better lifestyles than the other, but in the end, we are all just people. We live our lives as different as they may be, but nobody is better than anyone else. I was assigned to look at the pictures in  the Florida Times Union's Metro and A section for a week and do a content analysis. I was amazed on how much coverage was on Caucasians.Minorities are unrepresented-to non existent in the news. There were hardly any coverage on African American woman and the coverage on African American men was mostly about their arrests.

Florida Times Union -Section A Pictures

	White Men	White Woman	African American Men	African American Woman
Tuesday  October 5th	Nobel Prize Winner-1 Criminal-1 Firefighter-1	Jurors-4	Teacher-1 Criminal-2
Wednesday October 6th	Politician-4 Sports-1 Boy-1 Nobel Prize Winner-1 Criminal-1	Politician-2 Breast Cancer Survior-1 Mother-1
Thursday  October  7th	Students: 2 Politian: 2 Scholar: 1 Army: 2 Awards: 1	Students: 2 Politian: 4 Criminal: 2	Student:1 Criminal: 2 Army:1	Politian: 1
Friday October 8th	Athlete-1	Student-2
Saturday October  9th	Student-1 Politician-2 Banker-1 Employee-1	Criminal-2 Politician-1 Student-1 European-1	President Obama	Employee-1
Sunday October 10th	Sports-2 Criminal-2 Employee-1 Celebrity-1 Astronaut-1	Criminal-1 Animal Trainer-1
Monday October 11th	Reverand-1 Owner-1 Politician-1	Adovocate-1
Tuesday October 12th	Criminal-1 Student-2	Student-2 Survior-1		Survivor-1

pictures in metro section

	White Men	White Woman	African American Men	African American Woman
Tuesday Oct 5	Scholar-2	Painter-1 Scholar-2	Criminal-3	Law-1
Wednesday Oct 6	Criminal-2 Solider- 4	Wife-1 Criminal-1	Criminal-1
Thursday Oct 7	Teacher-1 Athlete-1 Politician-1	Criminal-1 Survivor-1	Criminal-3	0
Friday Oct 8	Politician-2	Criminal-1	Criminal -1	Mother-1
Saturday Oct 9	Politician-3 Police-1 Criminal-1	Police-1 Breast Cancer Survivor-1 Politician-1
Sunday Oct 10	Sports-1 Advocate-1		Dancer-1
Monday Oct 11	Students-4 Author-1	Student-2 Flight Attendant-1
Tuesday Oct 12	Sports-1	Wiccan-1 Daughter-1

America is a very diverse place. There are many ethnicities living all the country. As the charts above show, African Americans are underrepresented in the media. African American females almost have no appearance. Also woman are represented less than males. There is hardly any coverage on Asians, Hispanics, and other minorities.I It is sad to see that their stories and triumphs are not newsworthy enough to newspaper to publish.It is even sadder to see that when African American males are depicted you get the idea that most of them are criminals. They are plenty of white criminals out there and yet they are not depicted as often as African American criminals. Reporters and Editors should start focusing on the good, because research shows that Caucasians' crime rate is higher than that of African Americans.

Gerbner's cultivation theory is relevant to the news. People turn to newspapers to find out what is happening in their communities, societies, and the world in general. People depend on the news as reputable source because it's supposed to report the truth as objectively as possible. The Times-Union is creating an inferiority complex because most of the news reported is on Caucasians. It leads the people to believe that Caucasians are the  race that is most newsworthy.

The agenda setting theory also applies. The Times Union by placing pictures of mostly whites on their front pages suggests that they are the most newsworthy among all the races. People start to believe that Caucasians lead the most interesting lives out of all the ethnicities.

The schema theory also applies in my content analysis. As I mentioned earlier, while African American men were represented, they were mostly depicted as athletes and criminals. It makes the reader associate these stereotypes with them.

 There are many ethnicities living all the country. It is sad to see that their stories and triumphs are not newsworthy enough to newspaper to publish. After all we all are just people, everyone is equal right?

Below is an interview with a Princeton professor on the subject.
http://bigthink.com/ideas/2657#ooid=QwcnNmMTpo96kNV8XXFpSK9hgpjn2uMx