Monday, April 6, 2020
The Heinz Endowments released a report that found the majority of local news stories about African Americans in the Pittsburgh region focus on crime and sports. The new study, “Portrayal and Perception II: Content Analysis of Pittsburgh Media Coverage of African Americans,” determined that 72.4 percent of Pittsburgh television and newspaper news stories featuring black people from March 1 to April 30, 2019 were about crime-related issues or sports.
The report suggests that a limited focus in local media coverage indicates implicit racial bias, which news organizations should address. The analysis also described how the narrow portrayals can lead to harmful self-perceptions among African American young people.