Racism & Racial Inequalities

Publication

Zhang, Chenghui. 2021. Media Framing of Racism and White Supremacy: A Content Analysis of “Charlottesville Rally”. Race and Social Problems. Springer.

Through the lens of media framing perspective, this study explores how major media outlets frame the Charlottesville rally. I begin by pointing to the critical role the media plays and attending to concerns around how media as a social institution contributes to the racial conflict in the U.S. Taking on a critical race study perspective, I discuss how media is examined as a way of representing and framing race and racial relations in the U.S. Next, a computer-assisted content analysis of one week of online news articles from CNN and the FOX News related to the Charlottesville rally is conducted based on the media outlets’ thematic frames and sentiments. The evidence from the content analysis confirms the efforts made by the media to underplay racial conflict and normalize white supremacy in a subtle way.