ABSTRACT
The daily parade of shackled Black prisoners on TV news paints a picture of Blacks as violent and threatening toward Whites, self-interested and demanding toward the body politic-continually causing problems for the law-abiding, tax-paying majority. A number of studies support the notion that TV crime news often includes racial images (Campbell, 1995; Entman, 1990, 1992; Entman et al., 1998; Gilliam & Iyengar, 2000; Hurwitz & Peffley, 1997; Peffley, Shields, & Williams, 1996; Romer, Jamieson, & de Coteau, 1998). By their professional judgments, the gatekeepers of news project how consequential minorities are to American society and determine the ways in which minorities are portrayed to the majority audience (Wilson & Gutierrez, 1985).
