ABSTRACT
This research project began as a discussion of the depictions that Entman (1990, 1992, 1994a, 1994b) measured in local and network TV news. Entman’s substantial body of work in the area of how minorities are portrayed in TV news is important in any discussion of race and media. His content analyses of how race is portrayed in TV news suggested to us a research project that would test the effects of these depictions on viewers. Much of media effects research tests the possible effects of media content that has already been established by prior research. After all, if no measurable effect of the content could be detected, then perhaps the negative portrayals of African-American males in TV news might be much ado about nothing.
