ABSTRACT
X AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALE ATHLETES The roles that media and society play in shaping individual attitudes and beliefs about male athletes have been of great importance to many scholars.4 In fact, Whisenant and Pedersen (2004) assert that media’s “words and images have a major impact on societal processes and institutions . . . the influence of the media is projected not only by what is being said, but also what is not being reported through the absence of coverage.”5 According to media scholar Fujioka (2005), “negative minority images have been prevalent in the mainstream media.”6 As a result, the negative portrayals of African-Americans have led many white viewers of sports to perceive African-Americans in a more negative context.7 News media, research suggests, tend to cover stories that perpetuate stereotypes of the black male.8
