media.Hustle

Race is one of the most controversial yet least discussed issues of today. Though the civil rights movements of decades past made distinct strides towards progress, they also instilled the idea that racism has been “fixed” in modern society. This notion has progressed “normal” racism, to “New Racism”, where racial bias is not found on the surface but in the very structure our society operates within. (Littlefield, 2008) By analyzing national and local press advertisements, this paper will demonstrate how new racism influences our perceptions.

As Stuart Hall has taught us, our identities are created not solely from our idea of what we are, but also from our perception of what we are not. (Hall, 1991) In this, today’s mass media has a responsibility to provide the public with an accurate representation of the population. Without this accurate representation, our own national identity is skewed, we view ourselves as a White nation. By achieving parity in the mass media, it will be possible for Americans to actually see what we are – the most diverse nation in the world – and also recognize that we are not a single cultural entity that can be rigidly defined.

To this end, this paper analyzes advertisements in the Arizona Republic and USA Today for depictions by race. The aim is to attain both a local and national perspective, wherein it is hypothesized that a local paper will better represent the demographics of it’s geographic region whereas a national paper will have a much more broad, general appeal.

The Arizona Republic was founded in May 19, 1890 under the original name The Arizona Republican, and was originally known for it’s racist views against Native Americans, Blacks and Hispanics. The paper has gone through a variety of changes since 1890, and ideally the effect of civil rights movements should be visible. It was the tenth US daily newspaper in circulation in 2007, and is owned by the Gannett Company.

USA Today, also owned by the Gannett Company, is the widest circulating newspaper in the United States. Started in 1982, the paper is a product of modernization, using color and adapting a more visually appealing style to contrast with the black and white classically found in print.

This analysis was done by collecting six copies of each paper between February 19th and 29th, 2008. A total of 936 ads were coded for Caucasian, African American, Native American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Middle Eastern American citizens. The advertisements were also coded according to type with the following categories: Food/Beverage/Alcohol, Home/office appliance, Education/publication, Fashion/cosmetics, Business/finance/insurance, Health/medicine, Electronics/computer, Hotel/airlines/travel, Automobile, and Other. The Arizona Republic was found to have significantly more advertising, taking up 723 or 77% of the total.

Findings – The Arizona Republic

Being a local Arizona paper, it was hypothesized that Hispanic and Native American representation would be equal to or higher than parity. As can be seen in Figure 1, this was partially correct. Curiously, while Native Americans were overrepresented, Hispanics were depicted 4% under parity, the only official (listed on U.S. Census) group to be inadequately represented.

During coding, it was discovered that the Arizona Republic contained a bias towards Fashion/cosmetics advertisements as well as a category that had to be created due to skewing statistics for the Other category, Local Events and Entertainment. These two categories combined make up 60% of the total advertising.

Fashion/Cosmetics

Fashion/cosmetics is an important category to examine regardless of the frequency which it appears, as it is truly defining our national self image. The images selling us the latest fashion imply a definition for beauty which we base all other judgments upon. This category was found to be 68% Caucasian, 17% African American, 7% Hispanic, 3% Asian and less than 1% Native American.

The implications of this distribution are numerous, to begin with the difference between Caucasian totals for all ads (74%) shows us how today’s youth market and popular culture is slowly becoming more diverse. It is less and less “cool” to be Caucasian, explaining the rise in African American representation. This is demeaning, however, as it highlights how African Americans are only allowed superficial equality, often recognized in public view for sexual appeal or physical prowess.

Hispanic representation in this category stays similar to the totals, showing us that while the perceived demographic by advertisers is smaller than parity, it is at least constant in this particular context. If numerical parity cannot be reached, it can at least be seen positively when a certain ethnic group isn’t manipulated to create an image around a product.

Asian Americans, as is found through the majority of this study, remain very close to parity. Native Americans are mostly under represented, and along with Hispanic statistics show us resistance to integration with southwestern culture through fashion. Not only are these two groups unable to fulfillingly see themselves portrayed in fashion media, but no other group does either, which according to Hall is as damaging to the other groups as the two that are excluded. (Hall, 1991)

Local Events and Entertainment

This category is interesting because it indirectly tells us a couple things. First, this is how local businesses perceive – or want to perceive – the majority of their clients. Based on this knowledge, we can go another step and qualify that the people represented in these ads are who are thought to live in this area, and willingly will participate in events. The absence of a certain group can be thought to imply, though with some uncertainty, that this group is unwelcome or outside of the perceived client base of businesses in Arizona.

With that in mind, Caucasian (79%), African American (11%), Hispanic (3%), Asian (<1%), Native American (5%), highlights a few more implications. Hispanic representation is laughably low, especially for a state on the Mexican border. This is one area where Asian representation falls behind at close to none. According to most local venues, there are no Asian Americans in Arizona and hardly any Hispanics. African American percentages are lower than parity, however not so distinctly lower to imply a severe under representation. The over representation of Caucasians tells us who local businesses want showing up, regardless of whether they expect them or not.

Native American representation here is interesting, but makes sense. Local businesses, moreso than any other advertisers are going to know to whom they should market. Therefore this increase in representation seems natural, but when compared side by side to Hispanic results brings up some questions. Why would businesses, who market to Native Americans knowing there is a demographic for such, not market to Hispanics when they should know there is an even larger demographic? Perhaps this suggests overall attitudes towards these particular groups from a White perspective? Since illegal immigration is a current hot topic, are Hispanics currently looked down upon by the White ideal while Native Americans are currently more favorable?

Findings – USA Today

Being the most widely circulated newspaper in the U.S., the responsibility of promoting an openly diverse market falls squarely on USA Today’s shoulders. This is the face of our nation.
Shown in Figure 2, we find some not unexpected but interesting results. To start, 69% Caucasian is much more favorably close to parity than the 74% found in our local sample. African and Asian American representation is slightly above parity, while Hispanics remain below. This sample was also the only evidence in this study that other races exist outside of those that have already been labeled.

This paper, while having far fewer advertisements than the Arizona Republic, was shown to also have a certain concentration of advertising in Hotel/airlines/travel and Electronics/computers. Together these categories represent 57% of total advertising.

Hotel/Airlines/Travel

This category is as telling as it is confusing. 93% Caucasian, 3% African American, 0% Hispanic, 4% Asian American and 0% Native American. This is saying many things but two things in particular, either travel agencies only believe Caucasians have the money and time to travel, or currently the White ideal is to leave this country.

Similar to how films have been found to reveal an “Us” against “Them” mentality within Whiteness, could this be a last stand of sorts from White mentality? (Ramirez-Berg, 2002) If not, the fact that it is very clearly only Whites who travel agencies and hotels expect to book, what does it say about our society that they are the only group of people who are currently expected to be financially secure enough to travel?

Electronics

51% Caucasian, 27% African American, 17% Hispanic, 3% Asian American, 0% Native American. The combination of the severe drop in Caucasian representation and rise of African American and Hispanic representation shows us, similar to Fashion, how AHANA’s are used in marketing. A few ideas jump out at what could have caused this drastic change:

1) African Americans and Hispanics are assumed to be uninformed or less caring about current technology, and therefore higher representation is required to offset.

2) Youth culture, similar to fashion, will follow AHANA culture within electronics.

3) AHANAs, often stereotyped as spending money on quick, tangible rewards, are a market that advertisers definitely want to make sure they cover.

Regardless, it’s difficult to see any positivity in this gross disparity, other than it is refreshing to see the scales tipped in the other direction, though still unbalanced.

Conclusions

Native Americans are over represented in the Arizona Republic but not represented in USA Today. This was expected, however national parity is a goal.

While it appears parity has been reached for African Americans based on the totals in national in local press, when the ads are categorized a bias is discovered towards fashion and electronics. African Americans appear to be confined to a superficial, material world.

Asian Americans are over represented or close to parity in all categories except for local events. There’s not too much to say about Asian American representation based on this study, except that the statistics are close to parity.

Hispanic representation has not reached parity in any examined area except for national electronics, which they are overrepresented. There is a clear evidence of Hispanic under representation.

Caucasian percentages are close to or under parity in every field except for national travel, which with 93% representation highlights a significant bias. What does this bias tell us?

Throughout this entire study not a single Middle Easterner was found.

Works Cited

Hall, Stuart. (1991). Ethnicity: Identity & Difference. Radical America. 23-4: 9 – 20.

Littlefield, Marci. (2008). The Media as a System of Racialization: Exploring Images of African American Women and the New Racism. American Behavioral Scientist. 51-5: 675 – 685.

Ramirez-Berg, Charles. (2002). Categorizing the Other: Stereotypes and Stereotyping. Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, Resistance. Austin: University of Texas Press. pgs. 13 – 37.