Osei Appiah

Framing News Stories: The Role of Visual Imagery in Priming Racial Stereotypes

Two thematic news reports on the three-strikes law and school vouchers were differentially illustrated with photographs. Online news stories were either illustrated with no images, with 2 photographs of Blacks, with 2 photographs of Whites, or with 2 photographs, 1 of a Black and the other of a White person (mixed condition). In none of the four conditions did the text make any reference to the ethnic/racial identity of the subjects in the photographs juxtaposed with the text. White respondents assessed the extent to which each ethnic/racial group was affected by the social problem or issue discussed in the news stories. Differential pictorial illustration of ethnic groups fostered differentiation association of ethnic groups with the social problem. Implicit racial images of Blacks helped prime racial stereotypes about blacks and led to stronger association of Blacks with social problems addressed in the stories. The concept of implicit visual propositioning is discussed as a discursive form through which racial stereotypes of Blacks are subtly activated and maintained in society.

Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian American Adolescents' Responses to Culturally Embedded Ads

The researcher digitally manipulated the race of characters in ads and the number of race-specific cultural cues in the ads while maintaining all other visual features of these ads. Three hundred forty-nine Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian American adolescents evaluated Black character or White character ads based on their: (1) perceived similarity to the characters in the ads; (2) identification with the characters in the ads; (3) belief that the ads were intended for them; and (4) overall rating of the ads. The findings indicate that, overall, White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American adolescents respond more favorably to Black character ads than they do to White character ads.

Effects of Ethnic Identification on Web Browsers’ Attitudes toward and Navigational Patterns on Race-Targeted Sites

Contrary to research that suggests Blacks can only be reached effectively with Black-oriented media, this research demonstrates that there appears to be a subset of the Black population that can be reached equally well with White targeted media as they can with Black-targeted media. The study findings confirm expectations that Blacks’ differential responses to race-targeted Web sites are mediated by their level of ethnic identification. Blacks with strong ethnic identities spent more time browsing a site and viewing each story when the site was targeted to Blacks than Whites. Blacks with strong ethnic identities also rated the site and the stories more favorably when browsing the Black-targeted site compared to the White-targeted site. In contrast, Blacks with weak ethnic identities displayed no difference in their browsing time on the sites and stories or their rating of the sites and stories based on the racial target of the Internet site.

News Selection Patterns as a Function of Race: The Discerning Minority and the Indiscriminating Majority

This study examines whether White majority and Black minority members differ in selecting news stories that featured either individuals of their own group or dissimilar others. Hypotheses derived from social-cognitive theory, social comparison theory, and distinctiveness theories were tested utilizing unobtrusive observations of news story selections. This selective exposure research design overcomes methodological constraints of previous experimental studies that employed self-reports and forced-exposure techniques to measure responses of Blacks and Whites to race-specific media sources. Our sample consisted of 112 Blacks and 93 Whites, who browsed 10 online news stories while exposure was unobtrusively logged via software. The news site displayed equal numbers of Black and White characters, with the pictures associated with the news stories rotated across participants. Results indicate that Whites showed no preference based on the race of the character featured in the news story. In contrast, Blacks strongly preferred news stories featuring Blacks and spent more than twice the reading time on them compared to exposure to news stories featuring Whites.

Effects of Strength of Ethnic Identity and Product Presenter Race on Black Consumer Attitudes

ABSTRACT This study examines the relationship between ethnic identity and same- or different-race sources on blacks’ consumer attitudes. Social identity theory provides a theoretical framework to explain black consumers’ decision-making processes. Using structural equation modeling, the authors show that the race of a character used in an ad transversely moderates the relationship between ethnic identity and consumer attitudes. Specifically, they find that as blacks’ strength of ethnic identity increases, they tend to display more favorable consumer attitudes if the product presenter of an e-commerce website is also black and weaker but negative attitudes if the product presenter is white.

Assessing Cultural and Contextual Components of Social Capital: Is Civic Engagement in Peril?

Much research on political participation and civic engagement centers on the question: “What motivates people to get involved?” Several communication variables have been purported to influence these activities, such as television, newspaper, and Internet use. The general conclusion is that civic and political participation is declining. However, the rates of decline (or increase) in these activities among certain racial and cultural groups, such as Blacks compared with Whites, is not clear. Furthermore, the roles of religion and the church—an important component in creating bonds and networks that encourage such participation—have received little attention among communication scholars. The authors sought to examine the intricacies among race, religiosity, and political and civic engagement by expanding the current literature on social capital to include cultural and contextual components of church involvement. They found that in a national sample, the more involved Blacks are with church and the more frequently they attend services, the more involved they are in their communities. Moreover, their findings are consistent with previous research regarding media use; newspaper reading, and Internet use were positively related with civic engagement and voting, whereas television use was not. Implications for communication research, social capital, and measurement of race and culture are discussed.

A Tale of Two Social Contexts: Race-Specific Testimonials on Commercial Web Sites

ABSTRACT This two-part study examines the effects of race-specific testimonials on both Black and White consumers and on Black majority and Black minority consumers. Study I demonstrates that Black Internet surfers respond more favorably to testimonial ads that utilize Black character testimonials than they do to testimonials that use White characters. White Internet surfers responded no differently to testimonials based on the race of the product presenter. Study I also indicates that Black and White Web surfers seem to have a slight preference for moderately vivid testimonials versus highly vivid testimonials. Study II indicates that Blacks who represented a numeric minority in their immediate social environment showed more favorability toward ads that use Black characters than Blacks who resided in a social environment wherein they comprised a numeric majority.

Americans are more exposed to difference than we think: Capturing hidden exposure to political and racial difference

Abstract Use of name generators (NG) in assessing exposure to political difference has led to the conclusion that disagreement is uncommon. Data from two representative surveys tested a NG modification to probe for exposure to difference. Over half for whom NG results suggest no exposure to difference were able to name an alter who supported an alternative candidate. Over a quarter whose NG results indicate no exposure to a racial difference were able to name someone of the opposite race with whom they’d talked politics. These findings demonstrate that mixed or diverse networks are more common than prior NG research suggests.

Differences in Media Buying by Online Businesses in Black- and White-Targeted Magazines: The Potential Impact of the Digital Divide on Ad Placement

This study examined differences in ad placement by online companies based on whether the publication targets the general market or the Black population. Seventy-two magazines from three different categories were analyzed to ascertain the number of online company ads in each magazine. It was predicted that online businesses placed more ads in general market magazines than they did in magazines targeted to Black audiences. The findings clearly support the overall hypothesis. The potential impact of the digital divide on ad placement is discussed.

Experiencing Racial Humor with Outgroups: A Psychophysiological Examination of Co-Viewing Effects

Research on co-viewing (or group viewing) is scarce. Yet, co-viewing has important implications for the viewers’ entertainment experience and the way viewers respond to and evaluate entertainment—especially those with controversial messages. The present study investigated responses to racial humor content among racial in-group and out-group viewing contexts. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which Blacks and Whites would experience discomfort when viewing racial slurs in comedies with in-group compared to out-group members. Employing real-time psychophysiological data and multilevel time series models, the study found a significant increase in emotional arousal (indicated by SCRs) and distraction (indicated by RSA) among Blacks in the context of out-group viewing compared to in-group viewing, but not for Whites. Implications of findings are discussed.