4 in 5 Black adults see racist depictions in the news either often or sometimes, says new study

In a new study, Black Americans expressed broad concerns about how they are depicted in the news media, with majorities saying they see racist or negative depictions and a lack of effort to cover broad segments of their community.

-  David Bauder

Four in five Black adults say they see racist or racially insensitive depictions of their race in the news either often or sometimes, according to the Pew Research Center.

Three years after George Floyd's killing triggered a racial reckoning in the news media, Pew took its first broad-based look at Black attitudes toward the media with a survey of nearly 5,000 Black adults this past winter and follow-up focus groups.

The survey found 63% of respondents saying news about Black people is often more negative than it is toward other racial or ethnic groups, with 28% saying it is about equal.

"It's not surprising at all," said Charles Whitaker, dean of the Medill journalism school at Northwestern University. "We've known both anecdotally and through my personal experience with the Black press, that Blacks have long been dissatisfied with their coverage.

"There's a feeling that Black Americans are often depicted as perpetrators or victims of crime, and there are no nuances in the coverage," Whitaker said.

That attitude is reflected in the Pew study's finding that 57% of respondents say the media only covers certain segments of Black communities, compared to 9% who say that a wide variety is depicted.