Many Say Coverage of the Poor and Minorities Is Too Negative

August 19, 2010
PEW Report

Many Say Coverage of the Poor and Minorities Is Too Negative
News about Whites, Middle Class Mostly Seen as Fair

In evaluating news coverage of different groups, pluralities of Americans say that coverage of poor people and Muslims is too negative, while somewhat smaller percentages say the same about coverage of blacks and Hispanics.

Among eight groups tested, whites and middle-class people are the only groups that majorities say are treated fairly by the press; 57% say that news coverage of whites is generally fair while 56% say the same about coverage of middle-class people.

Notably, about a third (32%) say that coverage of wealthy people is too positive – the highest percentage for any group included in the survey. About as many see coverage of the wealthy as too positive as say it is generally fair (31%).

These are the results of latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted August 12-15 among 1,005 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which also finds that Americans continued to track the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico last week more closely than other major stories. With coverage of the leak down significantly, the public’s high interest likely reflects the perceived importance of the story; 44% say this was the story they followed most closely, while the spill accounted for just 3% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The survey also shows that the public is divided over whether news organizations devote too much coverage to race relations in this country. Still, close to half (48%) say the media make relations between the races seem worse than they actually are, while about a quarter (24%) say they reflect race relations as they really are.

Just more than a third (34%) say news organizations give too much attention to race relations, while a comparable 31% say they give these difficult issues too little coverage and 25% say the amount is about right.

African Americans are much more likely than whites to say news organizations give too little attention to race relations (51% vs. 24%), though pluralities in both groups (42% for blacks, 50% for whites) say the media make race relations seem worse than they actually are.

About four-in-ten Democrats (41%) say news organizations give race relations too little coverage, compared with 20% of Republicans and 32% of independents. Republicans, on the other hand, are much more likely to say that race relations get too much coverage (47%), compared with 29% of Democrats and 32% of independents.

Those 18-29 are more likely than other age groups to say that the media gives too little attention to race relations. About half (49%) say this, compared with 18% of those 65 and older. Again, the differences narrow when people are asked to assess the coverage. For example, 41% of those 18-29 say news organizations make race relations seem worse than they are, just about the same as the 44% of those 65 and older who say this.

Read complete report:

http://people-press.org/report/646/