REACH Media Analysis Project: British news coverage of young black men and boys
Grant Holders: Kerry Moore, Dr Stephen Cushion
Researchers: Lucy Bennett, Liezel Longboan, Max Pettigrew and Darren Kelsey
Funder: Race, Cohesion and Faiths Research Unit, Department for Communities and Local Government
Project Duration: 2008 to 2009 (The research findings will be published early in 2010)
Aims and Objectives
This project aims to explore current representations of black boys and young men in UK national media. It will focus particularly upon measuring the extent of negative stereotyping of these groups evident across the mainstream news, current affairs and factual programmes.
Importantly, however, it will also explore, in depth, the patterns and key characteristics of this coverage across these and other media forms. In order to challenge negative stereotypes and to contribute to more positive media representations of young black men and boys, evidence generated from media monitoring research will be invaluable.
Our systematic media analyses will provide a robust evidential base for understanding the manner and extent to which young black men and boys are portrayed in the news media, but they will also contribute to a better understanding of how those portrayals are constructed.
As such, the research will aim to strengthen the evidence base underpinning the REACH programme and feed into measured designed to evaluate REACH and its role modelling scheme.
Our study could provide a baseline for further research into the topic inviting possible longitudinal studies to measure coverage over a more extended time period. Thus, our data could potentially be used for Government related schemes which relates to the role and influence of news media images of black boys and young black men.
Our key questions include:
- Overall, what is the extent and nature of coverage of young black boys and men across a range of UK national news media over 2008-9?
- Do some forms of news media (TV news, say, rather than press) provide a more accurate or positive assessment of young black boys and men? What would a regular newspaper reader or television viewer be likely to learn about the role and behaviour of young black boys and men in different news media?
- Is the information provided about young black boys and men even-handed and accurate over the course of the monitoring period? Our assessment here will include an examination of topics covered, sources used, story prominence and length, as well as the extent to which factual information about the behaviour of young black boys and men is explained. This will allow us measure change, if any, over the course of a year.
- To what extent has the REACH programme been reported across a range of news media and what is the nature of this coverage? We focus here on the specific role modelling campaign by REACH and whether it has influenced any media stereotyping or prejudice identified in our study.
- Finally, when identifying if any positive examples of coverage relate to the reporting of young black men, we ask how this might inform a set of ‘best practice’ recommendations that future campaigns like REACH can draw upon to develop communication strategies.