ABSTRACT
A randomly selected late-evening half-hour newscast was recorded in twelve cities during the early spring of 2005. The study was designed to observe the content of reported news and the race/ethnic and gender composition of the major characters in the newscast. To this end, two observers timed and coded approximately forty variables in 210 stories with a total of 259 major characters. Following the coding of a local news story, judges were required to rate the story on a five-point scale, identifying its value along a continuum of social capital. The instructions for a very negative story read: This story portrays a social problem that may be construed as a malignant property of the city. Stories were assigned to the intermediate point if their affective tone was basically neutral or indifferent. There is a core meaning to the concept of social capital.
