Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Handbook of Global Media Ethics pp 1143–1161Cite as

News Coverage of Racism, White Supremacy, and Hate Speech

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

This chapter argues that the mainstream media have been integral to the promulgation of a form of antiracism that has, in fact, helped maintain structural inequalities and everyday stereotypes about minoritized communities. This devotion to “official antiracisms” (Melamed, Represent and Destroy) which limit what can be said about race and racial inequality has always served the interests of powerful official actors by valorizing whiteness as a structuring ideology. Such a limiting framework for antiracism separates racist speech and actions from mainstream values, placing it as a fringe anomaly. In news, this stance has been inextricably tied to the norms and routines that have governed modern journalism, including the performance of objectivity. In an extreme populist moment and a digitally driven media environment, journalists must dismantle the rote quoting of sources, dueling soundbites, and frenzied news alerts that highlight incendiary speech and rethink objectivity as practiced through these routines. They must do so in order to reckon with a resurgence of overt racism.

Support for this project was provided by a 2019–2020 Faculty Support Grant from the Cal State East Bay Division of Academic Affairs.

Cervantez, an MA student in the Department of Communication at CSU East Bay, conducted the content analysis of “The Squad” described in the final main section.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   229.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   299.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Ibid.

  2. 2.

    Winant, The World is a Ghetto, 133–146.

  3. 3.

    Ibid., 136.

  4. 4.

    Ibid., 6.

  5. 5.

    Ibid., 175.

  6. 6.

    Melamed, Represent and Destroy, 1–14.

  7. 7.

    Bell, “This is Not Who We Are.”

  8. 8.

    See annual Pew Center reports on local, national, and cable news, 2019; Mitchell, “Americans Still Prefer Watching to Reading News.”

  9. 9.

    Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning; for a summary see 1–11.

  10. 10.

    Schudson, Discovering the News; Schiller, Objectivity and the News.

  11. 11.

    In Just the Facts, David Mindich traces objectivity to before the American Revolution. and Stephen J. A. Ward, in The Invention of Journalism Ethics, finds the roots of objectivity in antiquity.

  12. 12.

    For example, see Mindich Just the Facts; Ward, The Invention of Journalism Ethics; Beavin and Yusufali, The Canadian Encyclopedia.

  13. 13.

    Furner, Advocacy and Objectivity, 14.

  14. 14.

    Furner, Advocacy and Objectivity; Ross, The Origins of American Social Science.

  15. 15.

    Daston, Objectivity and the Escape from Perspective; Smith, Social Science in the Crucible.

  16. 16.

    See Ward, The Invention of Journalism Ethics.

  17. 17.

    Tuchman, “Objectivity as Strategic Ritual.”

  18. 18.

    Mindich, Just the Facts, 118–134.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., 120–121.

  20. 20.

    There are many qualitative, quantitative, and critical scholarly research projects on historic and contemporary media treatment of indigenous peoples, refugees, and immigrants. For example, see Anderson and Robertson, Seeing Red; van Dijk, Racism and the Press; Campbell et al., Race and News.

  21. 21.

    Bell, “This is Not Who We Are.”

  22. 22.

    See, for example, Squires, Dispatches from the Color Line; Anderson/Robertson, Seeing Red, Said, Covering Islam.

  23. 23.

    Said, Covering Islam, 28.

  24. 24.

    Said Orientalism.

  25. 25.

    See Ismael and Measor, Racism and the North American Media Following September 11th. Powell, “Framing Islam: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of Terrorism Since 9/1;” Yin, “Were Timothy McVeigh and the Unabomber the Only White Terrorists? Race, Religion, and the Perception of Terrorism;” Carver and Harrie, “Framing Terrorists in Canada: A Comparative Analysis of Two Shootings.”

  26. 26.

    Squires, Dispatches from the Color Line; Bonilla Silva, Racism Without Racists; Anderson and Robertson, Seeing Red; Said, Covering Islam.

  27. 27.

    For a summary of reports that make this claim, see Bell, “By Any Other Name.”

  28. 28.

    For example, see Anti-Defamation League, “A Dark and Constant Rage: 25 Years of Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States”; Potok, “A Study of the Rise of Lone Wolf and Leaderless Resistance;” Kurzman and Schanzer, “Law Enforcement Assessment of the Violent Extremism Threat.”

  29. 29.

    Powell, “Framing Islam: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of Terrorism Since 9/11.” 201, 91.

  30. 30.

    Carver and Harrie, “Framing Terrorists in Canada: A Comparative Analysis of Two Shootings;” Yin, “Were Timothy McVeigh and the Unabomber the Only White Terrorists?;” Powell, “Framing Islam: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of Terrorism Since 9/11.”

  31. 31.

    Carver and Harrie, “Framing Terrorists in Canada: A Comparative Analysis of Two Shootings.”

  32. 32.

    Beckett, “Fanning the Flames: Reporting Terror in a Networked World,” 18.

  33. 33.

    See an investigative report by Speri, “The FBI Has Quietly Investigated White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement.”

  34. 34.

    Bell, “This is Not Who We Are.”

  35. 35.

    While this chapter focuses on the United States, Canada has a long history of demurring on its racist past and present. Anderson and Robertson, Seeing Red, 274–276, point out that Canada’s national imagination is based on a sense of superiority over the US’s treatment of minoritized populations while ignoring its own record of abuses against indigenous peoples and others.

  36. 36.

    Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning.

  37. 37.

    See Laclau, On Populist Reason; for treatment of populism as regards journalism, see Ward, Ethical Journalismin a Populist Age, particularly 75–101.

  38. 38.

    See, for example, Sherman in Politifact.

  39. 39.

    Lee, “Analysis | Donald Trump’s False Comments Connecting Mexican Immigrants and Crime”; New York Times, “Transcript: Donald Trump’s Taped Comments About Women.”

  40. 40.

    CBS This Morning, “Trump’s Tweets … Denounced as Racist.”

  41. 41.

    CBS All Access, “How Do We Know If Something Is Racist?”

  42. 42.

    North, “How 4 Congresswomen Came to Be Called ‘the Squad.’”

  43. 43.

    NowThis, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls out”; Stolberg, “From Celebrated to Vilified, House’s Muslim Women Absorb Blows Over Israel”; Hoskinson, “Rep. Ilhan Omar Is As ‘American As Everyone Else.’”

  44. 44.

    Parton, “Trump and Pence’s Racist Weekend Spectacle Was No Accident: It’s the Re-Election Plan”; Loofbourow, “Trump Isn’t Trying to Trap the Democrats. He’s After Something Far More Primitive”; Karni, “From the Attack to the Retreat, and Back Again.”

  45. 45.

    This no longer aligns with footnote #1.

  46. 46.

    For example, Karni, “From the Attack to the Retreat.”

  47. 47.

    Karni, “In Another About Face.”

  48. 48.

    Baker “An Assumption That Spoke Volumes: News Analysis”; Hirschfeld Davis, “After Fiery Fray, House Condemns Trump’s Tweets.”

  49. 49.

    Rogers and Fandos, “Trump Tells Congresswomen to ‘Go Back’ to the Countries They Came From.”

  50. 50.

    CBS News, “Democratic Congresswomen Known as ‘The Squad’ Discuss Trump’s Racist Tweets with Gayle King.”

  51. 51.

    On the concept of intersectionality, see Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment.

  52. 52.

    MSNBC.com, “Joy Reid: Trump Wants to Be Part of ‘the Elite Circle’ but Never Will Be.”

  53. 53.

    Katko, “The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 8/15/17.”

  54. 54.

    USA Today, “Don Lemon Doubles Down Despite Backlash from Trump, Calls President’s Remarks Racist”; Wagner, “Trump Renews Attacks on Intelligence of CNN’s Don Lemon, One of the Moderators of the Democratic Debate.”

  55. 55.

    Squires, Dispatches from the Color Line, 203; see also Phyllis Fletcher in this volume.

  56. 56.

    Ibid., 207.

  57. 57.

    Ward, Ethical Journalism, 152–155.

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication, California State University-East Bay, Hayward, CA, USA

    Katherine M. Bell

Authors
  1. Katherine M. Bell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. UBC Graduate School of Journalism, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Stephen J. A. Ward

Section Editor information

    Rights and permissions

    Reprints and permissions

    Copyright information

    © 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

    About this chapter

    Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

    Cite this chapter

    Bell, K.M. (2021). News Coverage of Racism, White Supremacy, and Hate Speech. In: Ward, S.J.A. (eds) Handbook of Global Media Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32103-5_57

    Download citation

    Publish with us

    Policies and ethics

    Search

    Navigation