09/29/2023

Black Americans’ Experiences With News

Black Americans say educating journalists would make coverage fairer

Black Americans see a range of problems with how Black people are covered in the news, and few are hopeful that will change in the foreseeable future, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of nearly 5,000 Black adults.

On several questions, Black Americans are far more likely to view news coverage of Black people in a negative rather than positive light:

• Almost two-thirds of Black adults (63 percent) say news about Black people is often more negative than news about other racial and ethnic groups; 28 percent say it is about equal and 7  percent say it is often more positive.
• Fifty-seven percent say the news only covers certain segments of Black communities, compared with just 9 percent who say it covers a wide variety of Black people.
• Half say coverage is often missing important information, while only 9 percent say it often reports the full story.
• Forty-three percent say the coverage largely stereotypes Black people, far higher than the 11 percent who say it largely does not stereotype. An additional 43 percent say both of these things happen about equally.

These critical views of coverage of Black people are widely shared within the Black population, regardless of age, gender and even political party affiliation.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Pew Research Center.