ArticlePDF Available

Media-Based Strategies to Reduce Racial Stereotypes Activated by News Stories

DOI:10.1177/107769900708400204
Authors:
Srividya Ramasubramanian at Syracuse University
Srividya Ramasubramanian
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation

Abstract

This study focuses on the role of media in facilitating and inhibiting the accessibility of stereotypes primed by race-related news stories. Specifically, it examines experimentally the effects of two strategies for reducing stereotype accessibility: an audience-centered approach that explicitly instructs audiences to be critical media consumers, a goal of media literacy training; and a message-centered approach using stereo-type-disconfirming, counter-stereotypical news stories. Participants viewed either a literacy or control video before reading stereotypical or counter-stereotypical news stories about African Americans or Asian Indians. Implicit stereotypes were measured using response latencies to hostile and benevolent stereotypical words in a lexical decision task. Results suggest that a combination of audience-centered and message-centered approaches may reduce racial stereotypes activated by news stories.
Content uploaded by Srividya Ramasubramanian
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Srividya Ramasubramanian on May 06, 2015
Content may be subject to copyright.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
MEDIA-BASED STRATEGIES TO REDUCE RACIAL STEREOTYPES ACTIVATED BY NEWS STORIES
Srividya Ramasubramanian
Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly; Summer 2007; 84, 2; ABI/INFORM Global
pg. 249
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
... Step one is activation, which is automatic, and step two is the application, which is more intentional (Ramasubramanian, 2007). However, personal relevance (or individual motivation) can change the route of the process (Gilbert & Hixon, 1991). ...
... If the individual is not captivated by the person or the situation that is being faced, then the individual will uphold their previous impression (racial priming). This process is an automatic subconscious process that requires little or no mental effort (Ramasubramanian, 2007). The lack of personal relevance stops the individual from continuing to the next steps in the model that will eventually lead the individual to form a new impression of the person or situation analyzed (Gilbert & Hixon, 1991). ...
... On the contrary, if a person encounters another person or situation that has personal relevance to them, then they will continue their journey on to the next steps in the model. Here, the individual will engage in a more deliberate process (Ramasubramanian, 2007) that includes an examination of the characteristics of the situation being assessed before making a judgment; rather than automatic stereotype processing (Blair, 2002). If the person or situation is relevant to the individual, then they become motivated to observe, analyze, and accept nuances and more detailed characteristics of the target (step #3: attention allocation). ...
Personal Relevance Matters: Reducing Racial Priming on Discussion Boards about Racial Issues in Marketing Courses
Article
  • Oct 2022
The job market puts pressure on marketing educators to adapt the content of their courses to current business events impacted by race, diversity, and gender issues. However, students may experience discomfort when learning about and discussing controversial topics that are not normally discussed in class. To provide tools for educators to tackle this problem, we conducted an experiment using online discussion boards, manipulating the sequence order of the questions asked to the students. A sentiment analysis offered evidence that a specific set of questions can trigger students’ personal relevance, reducing their racial priming. This will increase the students’ willingness to participate in an open discussion about race, diversity, and gender issues with their peers. The main contribution is a specific educational design that allows instructors to incorporate sensitive topics into their marketing courses without jeopardizing the classroom dynamic.
... Media often provide impetus to, and cultivate, stereotypes. Ramasubramanian (2007) argues that media inevitably incorporate 'biased information' into schemata or common knowledge that viewers construct about stereotyped groups. Once biased information is inculcated into the viewer's schema, it can easily be primed by media exposure. ...
... For example, Mastro and Kopacz (2006) noted that stereotypical portrayals (negative images) of minority populations (e.g., Hispanic and African American) in U.S. media cause the negative exposition of their actions and result in policy decisions based on negative stereotypes propagated by the media rather than on the actual attributes of the population. However, Ramasubramanian (2007) believes that media-based strategies, such as media literacy (critical consumers) and ...
... Thus, absent adequate intercultural communication and firsthand experiences, one resorts to media narratives, interpretations and descriptions about other cultures to construct one's social reality and ultimately to influence one's beliefs, values and behaviors through priming processes in the short term and learning processes in the long term (Bandura, 2009;Baron & Richardson, 2004). Such possibilities justify the research question in the present study, which is informed by findings that positive media portrayal of outgroups may lead to positive stereotypes (Mastro & Tukachinsky, 2012;Power et al., 1996;Ramasubramanian, 2007Ramasubramanian, , 2011-and vice versa (Dixon, 2006;Dixon & Azocar, 2007;Ramasubramanian, 2011). Many people perceive media information as an ultimate reality about other cultures; however, such information is not always accurate. ...
Stereotyping the Chinese in Arab Nations:Effects of media use, perceived realism, and perceived Chinese-Arab relations
Article
Full-text available
Stereotypes have become an acknowledged barrier to effective social communication, cross-cultural engagement and to globalization. This study examines the stereotypes of the Chinese held by people in four Arab nations (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Yemen) within the context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. It applies a three-pronged theoretical framework (social cognitive, cultivation, and media realism) to investigate the effects and the influence of Arab media use, of perceived realism and of perceived Chinese-Arab relations on the formation of Chinese stereotypes in those Arab nations. The study analyzes responses from 405 participants selected randomly from ‘Rwaq’ – the Arab World Massive Open Online Courses Platform. Results indicate, among other things, that Arab people have positive perceptions of Chinese-Arab relations and that most Arabs have positive stereotypes of the Chinese. Arab people’s use of Arab media and their perceived realism of media content are positively correlated with stereotypes projected in those media. In conclusion, we argue that media organizations, particularly those in Arab counties, should develop a path toward mitigating the effects of harmful or negative media-generated stereotypes.
... We suggest three main routes of intervention that target familiarity preference to decrease stereotyping: in-person exposure, social media, and education. . Several studies support this, revealing that counter stereotypical media messages and news are effective in moderating stereotypes and reduce biases (Holt 2013;Liu et al., 2017;Ramasubramanian, 2007). Indeed, ongoing contact with people of different races, ethnicities, or sexual orientations effectively reduces general prejudice and prejudice toward different races, sexes, and sexual orientations (Berryman-Fink, 2006), especially with a focus on personal and individuated identities (Brewer & Miller, 1984) with cooperative tasks to form meaningful relationships (Berryman-Fink, 2006). ...
... In line with our findings, such diversity courses may be effective in part due to exposure to more diverse individuals, resulting in increased familiarity, preference, and positive attitudes toward them. Additionally, instructing society, as consumers of the media, to be more critical of the media in an audience-centered approach may reduce racial stereotypes brought upon by news stories (Ramasubramanian, 2007). ...
Interventions to Reduce Stereotyping Through Targeting Familiarity Preference
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2021
As people perceive familiar and unfamiliar individuals, they may subconsciously be influenced by stereotypical information that is harmful to the target. Stereotyping affects everyone and is connected to innate biases, noting familiarity preference in particular. Given the pervasiveness of this, we investigate the impact of familiarity preference on stereotypes through discussing and referencing research related to the topics of stereotypes, familiarity preference, and interventions to reduce stereotyping through targeting familiarity preference. Indeed, the warm feeling of recognition builds a trusting bond between individuals with the possibility to reduce stereotypical assumptions by affecting familiarity preference; therefore, we consider interventions by way of social media, education, and in-person exposure. Our discussion is essential in enhancing the understanding of how both stereotypes and familiarity preferences affect individuals’ interactions and the necessity to reduce the damage that results from stereotyping.
... In line with our findings, such diversity courses may be effective in part due to exposure to more diverse individuals, resulting in increased familiarity, preference, and positive attitudes toward them. Additionally, instructing society, as consumers of the media, to be more critical of the media in an audience-centered approach may reduce racial stereotypes brought upon by news stories ( [Ram07]). ...
... For many, without direct interpersonal experience with social others, media exposure influences the construction and maintenance of racial cognitions and emotion, and expectations about members of an outgroup (Fujioka, 1999;Mastro, 2009). Thus, media representations can play a defining role and contribute to increased understanding and acceptance of those who are of a different social category or contribute to misunderstanding and racial and ethnic strife (National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders [Kerner Commission], 1968;Paluck, 2009;Ramasubramanian, 2007Ramasubramanian, , 2011. ...
MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF BLACK WOMEN: PROGRESS, REGRESSION, OR TIIE STATUS QUO? Media Representations of Black Women in Primetime: Progress, Regression or the Status quo
Thesis
Full-text available
  • Sep 2022
This content analysis used a purposive sample of three Black women leading characters seen on popular television series aired during prime time. This study analyzed the quality of character portrayals in comparison to historical negative stereotyped portrayals of Black women, especially whether the characters were sexualized. Cohen's kappa was used to test for inter-rater reliability based on a composite of raters' observations of seven episodes of each of the three series. The variables stereotypes, sexually erotic behavior, and age of the leading character resulted in κ of 0. For sexual behavior κ was 0.691. The variables skin tone, character's attire, body type, and attractiveness yielded κ of 1, indicating perfect agreement. Character's temperament yielded a κ of 0.215 and degree of aggressiveness resulted in a κ of 0.24. Using a social identity framework, the character portrayals did not reflect the historical negative stereotypes of Black women as constructed for this study-mammy, tragic mulatta, Jezebel, Sapphire, or welfare queen. The results of this study suggest these representations of Black women can serve as positive exemplars of the breadth and complexity of Black women's lives in a racially hierarchical society where they are historically devalued.
... There are a few things that should be noted regarding our results. First, our control group held similar attitudes regarding African Americans as participants in our experimental conditions, but did not have those attitudes made conscious because they were not primed (see Ramasubramanian, 2007). Second, the effect of news information related to the BLM movement on participants' attitudes toward African Americans was significant but small (.05), which is common in experimental designs (Cohen, 1988;Field, 2009). ...
Portrayals of the Black Lives Matter Movement in Hard and Fake News and Consumer Attitudes Toward African Americans
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2022
Our study examined the relationship between media portrayals of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in hard and fake news in varying media modalities (print versus video) and participant attitudes toward African Americans. We also examined sociodemographic factors that may be related to susceptibility of fake news. Participants were primed with either hard or fake news (print or video) prior to completing the online questionnaire. Participants included 385 college students from a large southeastern public university. The findings revealed a direct effect of fake news on attitudes toward African Americans but only if the news was from a printed media modality. Hard news also had a positive impact on participant attitudes if from a printed media modality. These findings may help explain why information learned via fake news is persistent over time. Biological sex and political affiliation were associated with the impact of media priming on participants, with male and Republican participants being more susceptible to the effects of fake news. The results of this study should be helpful to those involved in policy making regarding social media and fake news and are timely considering that the BLM movement is growing stronger and the increase in fake news is ongoing.
... To stimulate 'healthier' news selection behavior, news media literacy (NML) interventions have been proposed as a valuable journalistic tool to help audience members make more mindful selection decisions (Livingstone, 2004). In the context of news about minorities, NML interventions have been proposed as a potentially effective way to implement evidence-based solutions to stereotypical thinking by bolstering critical evaluations of media portrayals of outgroup members (Ramasubramanian, 2007)-although such interventions may also backfire (see Nathanson, 2002;Steinke et al., 2007). For example, explicit instructions to suppress stereotypical thinking has been associated with increased levels of stereotypical thinking (Monteith, Sherman & Devine, 1998). ...
Does Information about Bias Attenuate Selective Exposure? The Effects of Implicit Bias Feedback on the Selection of Outgroup-Rich News
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 2022
People’s news diets are shaped by a diverse set of selection biases that may be unconscious in nature. This study investigates whether providing individuals with information about such unconscious biases attenuates selective exposure. More specifically, in two selective-exposure experiments among Dutch ingroup members focusing on ethnic (N = 286) and religious (N = 277) minorities, we expose individuals to their unconscious prejudices as measured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT) before documenting their news-selection patterns. Findings indicate that the effectiveness of this awareness-inducing strategy depends upon existing levels of implicit and explicit prejudice and overly expressed acceptance of the IAT scores. This implies that raising awareness of implicit prejudice works as an effective strategy for fighting biased news selection for some, but may backfire for others, and should therefore only be implemented with caution and attention for explicit considerations.
... White people acknowledged the learning potential of the show about social issues. As previously documented by Ramasubramanian (2007Ramasubramanian ( , 2011 and others (Ramasubramanian & Oliver, 2007;Scharrer & Ramasubramanian, 2015) in a news media setting, a combination of media literacy training and stereotype-disconfirming messages can help change people's views. The responses of the interviewees indicate that this approach also works in an entertainment TV setting, as Dear White People engages in both (Bavaro, 2018;Ray-Harris, 2017). ...
VR and 360-Degree Video Storytelling in Political Communication: Threats and Opportunities
Chapter
  • Jan 2022
Immersive storytelling has changed the way information is produced, distributed, and even consumed by viewers. Media, NGOs, and political parties have understood virtual reality technologies and 360-degree video as an opportunity to connect with users and deliver a closer and more immersive event experience. Regarding political communication, elections (campaigns, rallies, and debates) have been the most fertile ground for immersive storytelling. Using several cases as examples, this chapter addresses the opportunities immersive storytelling presents for institutional communication and public relations, as well as the ethical challenges posed by such content.
Stigma: An Investigative Analysis of the Irish Public’s Knowledge and Perception of Autism
Chapter
Full-text available
  • Nov 2022
Levels of stigma toward autism have greatly reduced over the past two decades, particularly since the introduction of various anti-stigma and educational campaigns. However, stigma does remain negatively impacting the lives of people with autism, despite attempts to educate the public about the condition. One country in which this is apparent is Ireland, where, although various autism campaigns have been implemented, and there is evidence of improved attitudes and behavior toward individuals with autism, there still remains a lack of knowledge and understanding with regard to the condition. This chapter presents some novel findings regarding the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of the Irish public toward autism. In an exploratory analysis, results demonstrate that whilst the Irish public professes an awareness of autism, a deep understanding of the condition is not present. There is also confusion regarding factors that contribute to autism. Reassuringly, there is little evidence of discrimination toward autistic individuals, but there are elements of prejudice that still exist. Details of these findings are outlined and discussed.
Platforms and Race: Exploring the Interpretation of Dear White People
Chapter
  • Jan 2022
This chapter seeks to explore the meaning-making processes of the series Dear White People—a Netflix original which follows the lives of several university students as they attempt to fully realise their identities in a heavily politicised, divided, and white-dominant society. To do so, the study used a qualitative mixed-methods approach that consisted of focus groups and interviews with a diverse group of young people living in the multicultural country of the Netherlands. Participants praised the tone, well-rounded characters, and storylines of Dear White People. However, data revealed differences in the way the white viewers and the black and other minority people interpret certain scenes and content. This, for instance, is derived from white people occasionally engaging in white fragility.
Effects of Stereotypical Television Portrayals of African-Americans on Person Perception
Article
Full-text available
An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that stereotypical television portrayals of African-Americans increase the likelihood that whites will make negative social perception judgments of an African-American (but not a white) target person. Forty white subjects were exposed to comedy skits featuring stereotypical or netural portrayals of African-American characters. Subjects then read a vignette describing an incident in which a college student was allegedly assaulted by his rommate. In half of the conditions, the alleged offender was assumed to be white; in the other half he was assumed to be African-American. Subjects rated the likelihood that the alleged offender was guilty of the assault. Guilt ratings of the white target did not differ significantly between the stereotypical and the neutral comedy skit conditions. In contrast, guilt ratings of the African-American target were higher in the stereotypical comedy skit condition than in the neutral comedy skit condition.
Racial Stereotypes and Whites' Political Views of Blacks in the Context of Welfare and Crime
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 1997
Theory: Social psychological theories of social stereotyping are used to generate a series of predictions about how and when whites' stereotypes of African-Americans are likely to bias their evaluations of blacks in the areas of welfare and crime. Hypotheses: The degree to which whites endorse negative stereotypes of blacks not only tends to bias their judgments of black (versus white) welfare recipients and criminal suspects, but also affects the way they respond to counter-stereotypical information about the target. Methods: Regression analysis and analysis of variance of data from a series of survey experiments with 1,841 whites in which the race and other attributes of welfare mothers, welfare recipients, and drug suspects were manipulated. Results: Whites holding negative stereotypes are substantially more likely to judge blacks more harshly than similarly described whites in the areas of welfare and crime policy. We also find that even whites with strongly negative perceptions of blacks respond quite favorably to them when confronted with individuating information that clearly contradicts their stereotype. By way of contrast, respondents who reject negative stereotypes of African-Americans display a remarkable consistency in their responses across both the race and the individuating information of the target.
Implicit prejudice and stereotyping: How automatic are they? Introduction to the special section.
Article
  • Nov 2001
This special issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition addresses issues of the measurement and the malleability of implicit prejudice and stereotypes. The findings raise fundamental questions about the assumptions underlying the assessment of implicit prejudice, particularly with regard to the widely used Implicit Association Test (A. Greenwald, D. McGhee, & J. Schwartz, 1998) and the assumption of extant models of prejudice and stereotyping that implicit biases are automatically and invariantly activated when perceivers come in contact with members of stigmatized groups. Several of the articles show that contextual manipulations produce reductions in implicit manifestations of prejudice and stereotyping. The articles in this issue, in challenging conventional wisdom, are thought provoking and should be generative in the field's ongoing efforts to understand the role of implicit (and explicit) processes involved in prejudice and stereotyping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components
Article
Three studies tested basic assumptions derived from a theoretical model based on the dissociation of automatic and controlled processes involved in prejudice. Study 1 supported the model's assumption that high- and low-prejudice persons are equally knowledgeable of the cultural stereotype. The model suggests that the stereotype is automatically activated in the presence of a member (or some symbolic equivalent) of the stereotyped group and that low-prejudice responses require controlled inhibition of the automatically activated stereotype. Study 2, which examined the effects of automatic stereotype activation on the evaluation of ambiguous stereotype-relevant behaviors performed by a race-unspecified person, suggested that when subjects' ability to consciously monitor stereotype activation is precluded, both high- and low-prejudice subjects produce stereotype-congruent evaluations of ambiguous behaviors. Study 3 examined high- and low-prejudice subjects' responses in a consciously directed thought-listing task. Consistent with the model, only low-prejudice subjects inhibited the automatically activated stereotype-congruent thoughts and replaced them with thoughts reflecting equality and negations of the stereotype. The relation between stereotypes and prejudice and implications for prejudice reduction are discussed.
A Continuum of Impression Formation, from Category-Based to Individuating Processes: Influences of Information and Motivation on Attention and Interpretation
Chapter
This chapter presents an integrated understanding of various impression formation processes. The chapter introduces a model of impression formation that integrates social cognition research on stereotyping with traditional research on person perception. According to this model, people form impressions of others through a variety of processes that lie on a continuum reflecting the extent to that the perceiver utilizes a target's particular attributes. The continuum implies that the distinctions among these processes are matters of degree, rather than discrete shifts. The chapter examines the evidence for the five main premises of the model, it is helpful to discuss some related models that raise issues for additional consideration. The chapter discusses the research that supports each of the five basic premises, competing models, and hypotheses for further research. The chapter concludes that one of the model's fundamental purposes is to integrate diverse perspectives on impression formation, as indicated by the opening quotation. It is also designed to generate predictions about basic impression formation processes and to help generate interventions that can reduce the impact of stereotypes on impression formation.