Engaging stigmatized communities through solutions journalism: Residents of South Los Angeles respond

Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 649-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Wenzel ◽  
Daniela Gerson ◽  
Evelyn Moreno ◽  
Minhee Son ◽  
Breanna Morrison Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local News ◽  
Civic Journalism ◽  
South Los Angeles ◽  
Project Study ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Communication Infrastructure Theory ◽  
Solutions Journalism

In many communities across the United States, substantive local news is a rare commodity. For areas long stigmatized and associated with high levels of violence, crime, and poverty, negative reporting may be the only local news available. Drawing from communication infrastructure theory and literature on local news audiences and civic journalism, this study explores how a local solutions journalism project is received by members of an underrepresented and stigmatized community. Solutions journalism stories focus on responses to social problems, usually exploring problem-solving efforts that have the potential to be scaled. This case examines how participants in six focus groups with 48 African-American and Latino South Los Angeles residents responded to solutions-oriented stories produced by a local media project. Study findings illustrate how residents navigate and critically interpret local media coverage, and how their response to ‘solutions journalism’ is largely positive but tempered by concerns regarding structural inequalities.

Shifting Stories with Solutions Journalism

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-46
Author(s):  
Andrea Wenzel
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
Local News ◽  
South Los Angeles ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Negative News ◽  
Communication Infrastructure Theory ◽  
Solutions Journalism

Chapter One introduces an example of how communication infrastructure theory can be used to diagnose the communication health of communities and to design an intervention in response. It also explores the role of place in influencing relationships between actors in local storytelling networks—in this case focusing on majority Black and Latinx communities in South Los Angeles that have historically been stigmatized by negative news representations. The chapter outlines a research-based intervention that sought to strengthen weak connections between local news outlets and community organizations by bringing representatives together to produce a series of solutions journalism stories about South LA. These stories were then discussed with South LA residents in a series of focus groups. While residents responded favorably to the solutions-orientation of stories, they wanted to see local media take steps to address power imbalances and to involve communities more in the process of making journalism.

The Ecosystems of Localism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Ali
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local News ◽  
Cultural Sovereignty ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Local Media

This chapter analyzes attempts in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom to evaluate their respective local media ecosystems. It begins by defining ecosystem and discusses the importance of ecosystem thinking when considering local news and local media within a specific geographic community. The case studies here include the FCC’s Information Needs of Communities report from 2010 (the “Waldman Report”), Ofcom’s Local and Regional Media report from 2009, and Canada’s Our Cultural Sovereignty Report (the “Lincoln Report”) from 2003. The chapter both laments the lack of attention given these reports, and argues for the importance of thinking holistically about local media especially when it comes to encouraging local news.

scholarly journals Local news availability does not increase pro-social pandemic response

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Causal Effect ◽  
High Volume ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local News ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Mobility Data ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Pro Social Behavior

Local media provide a bevy of pro-social and civic benefits because they provide essential information about peoples' local communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has created the conditions to test whether these conclusions can be extended beyond traditional political or civic domains, as the crisis had a particularly idiosyncratic spread across the United States. In a period of competing information and regulations, as well as rampant partisanship, a high volume of local media in an area should have led to a more pro-social response to the pandemic, as local residents had greater opportunities to learn about the risks specific to their communities and what their local and state officials were asking them to do. In particular, those with more local news available should have stayed home more and gone out for unnecessary travel less. I test this theory by combining county mobility data with counts of the local newspapers available in each county and other local demographic measures. After controlling for these other demographics and addressing potential confounding through weighting, I find no substantive effect of local newspaper volume on mobility change. This lack of a causal effect of local news availability on pro-social behavior uptake has implications for how we think about local media's role and efficacy in their communities.

Ceasing Fire and Seizing Time

Transfers ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Sharma ◽  
Armonds R. Towns
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tourist Gaze ◽  
South Los Angeles ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Gang Life ◽  
White Control

LA Gang Tours went on its inaugural ride through Los Angeles in 2010. Black and Latino former gang members from South Los Angeles lead the bus tours, sharing personal stories of gang life with mostly white tourists. A popular critique of the tour is that it facilitates a tourist gaze. However, we argue that to focus on the tourist gaze misses a more pressing opportunity to examine the production of whiteness. We shift the focus to consider the bus’s movement and the power it exerts in transforming the spatial and temporal dynamics of South Los Angeles. Based on participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and discourse analysis of materials surrounding the tours, we found that the tour lays the figurative foundations for gentrifi cation and reconfi rms a white control of mobility in the neighborhood. Th is white control of mobility extends beyond Los Angeles to impact the lives of people of color throughout the United States.

How Local Media Coverage of Voter Fraud Influences Partisan Perceptions in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano Udani ◽  
David C. Kimball ◽  
Brian Fogarty
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Election Administration ◽  
Local Media ◽  
American Elections ◽  
The Media ◽  
Voter Fraud ◽  
2012 Election

Extant findings show that voter fraud is extremely rare and difficult to prove in the United States. Voter’s knowledge about voter fraud allegations likely comes through the media, who tend to sensationalize the issue. In this study, we argue that the more voters are exposed to media coverage of voter fraud allegations, the more likely that they will perceive that voter fraud is a frequent problem. We merge the 2012 Survey of Performance of American Elections with state-level media coverage of voter fraud leading up to the 2012 election. Our results show that media coverage of voter fraud is associated with public beliefs about voter fraud. In states where fraud was more frequently featured in local media outlets, public concerns about voter fraud were heightened. In particular, we find that press attention to voter fraud has a larger influence on Republicans than Democrats and Independents. We further find that media coverage of voter fraud does not further polarize partisan perceptions of voter fraud. Rather, political interest moderates state media coverage on voter fraud beliefs only among Republicans. Last, our results provide no support that demographic changes, approval of election administration, or information concerning actual reported voting irregularities have any discernable effects on partisan perceptions.

Community-Centered Journalism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Wenzel
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
News Media ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Community Stakeholders ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Local Journalism ◽  
Communication Infrastructure Theory ◽  
Solutions Journalism ◽  
Theory Framework

In A Case for Community-Centered Journalism: Solutions, Engagement, Trust, Andrea Wenzel maps out a process model for building trust—not just in journalism, but between different sectors of communities. She details how, in many communities, residents gauge trust in news not only based on factors like accuracy and credibility, but also based on how these are intertwined with the perceived motives of news media, and whether outlets are seen to represent communities respectfully. For this reason, Wenzel contends that more local journalism alone is not enough. Rather, she argues that a different kind of local journalism is needed—a community-centered journalism that is solutions-oriented and that engages and shares power with community stakeholders. Through a series of case studies across the U.S., in urban, suburban, and rural communities, Wenzel uses a communication infrastructure theory framework to explore how local journalism interventions attempt to strengthen relationships between residents, community organizations, and local media. She examines the boundary challenges to dominant journalistic practices and norms that arise from place-based interventions to build relationships of trust. Mindful of dynamics of race, class, place, and power, Wenzel recommends a process that is portable – rather than scalable -- that centers on community stakeholders, and is shaped as much by local assets as by needs. She argues that if they shift away from a model that puts journalists at the center and marginalized communities on the periphery, engaged journalism and solutions journalism have the potential to strengthen not just journalism, but the communication health of communities.

The Case for Shared Community Stories

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Andrea Wenzel
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Community Groups ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Communication Infrastructure Theory ◽  
Solutions Journalism ◽  
Local News Media

This introductory chapter offers an overview of key concepts and the book’s argument for a model of community-centered journalism to build trust between local news media and communities. It outlines how the book conceptualizes trust (looking at factors including perceived representation and motives), solutions journalism (reporting focused on responses to social problems), and engaged journalism (practices that involve community members in journalistic production). It then sets out key questions tackled by other portions of the book, including how place-based interventions using engaged and solutions journalism practices can present boundary challenges to journalism norms and influence what communication infrastructure theory (CIT) calls community “storytelling networks”—the links between residents, community groups, and local media which can be indicators of an area’s communication health and predictors of civic participation. Finally, it offers an outline of the chapters that follow.

The White Racial Frame in Sport Media: Framing of Donald Trump and LaVar Ball’s Public Feud Following the UCLA Basketball Player Arrests in China

2020 ◽  
pp. 019372352096295
Author(s):  
Ryan Turcott ◽  
Jules Boykoff
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Basketball Player ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
News Production ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sport Media ◽  
White Racial Frame

This article utilizes the “white racial frame” to analyze the sport media coverage of the public feud between U.S. President Donald Trump and basketball celebrity entrepreneur, LaVar Ball. The feud originated in November 2017, when LaVar’s son—University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) player LiAngelo Ball—was detained in Hangzhou, China, for shoplifting along with two of his UCLA teammates. After some tense moments, the three players were released and flown back to the United States. The U.S. President Donald Trump took credit, leading to a prolonged, prickly exchange with LaVar Ball. This article analyzes six major U.S. newspapers and six sports-specific outlets that covered the Trump–Ball feud. First, we identify the predominant frames that appeared in coverage. Second, we track whose views were included in the news and how sourcing inflected the appearance of particular frames. The incident highlights how racialized language—if coded and dog whistled—enters public discussion through the lens of sport. It also highlights the role of social media, especially Twitter, in influencing news production.

scholarly journals Ageism in COVID-19-Related Media Coverage: Examining Publications During the First Month of the Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 933-934
Author(s):  
Mijin Jeong ◽  
Sarah Jen ◽  
Hyun Kang ◽  
Michael Riquino
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Los Angeles Times ◽  
Survivor Narrative

Abstract The media has consistently described older adults as the population most vulnerable to COVID-19. Anti-ageism critics have taken issue with the oft-repeated statement that “only” older adults are at risk, a construction that dismisses and devalues the nuances within this population. The purpose of this study was to analyze instances of ageism in national media sources during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic search returned 287 articles concerning older adults and COVID-19 published in four major newspapers in the United States—USA Today, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post—between March 11 and April 10, 2020. Combining the strengths of content analysis and critical discourse analysis, we deductively and inductively reviewed the articles for patterns related to implicit and explicit forms of ageism. While ageism was rarely discussed explicitly, ageist bias was evident in implicit reporting patterns, such as frequent use of the phrase the elderly, which was often paired with statements describing older adults as vulnerable. Infection and death rates among older adults, as well as institutionalized care practices, were among the most commonly reported topics, providing a limited portrait of aging during the pandemic. While some authors utilized a survivor narrative by portraying older adults as having survived hardships, this construction implicitly places blame on those unable to do so. Older adults, when quoted directly, produced more complex and nuanced narratives of aging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such narratives can combat societal ageism and promote self-determination and -definition.

Developing an Intervention

2020 ◽  
pp. 75-104
Author(s):  
Andrea Wenzel
Keyword(s):  
Participatory Design ◽  
Place Identity ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Network Ties ◽  
Participatory Journalism ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Economically Marginalized ◽  
Communication Infrastructure Theory ◽  
Solutions Journalism ◽  
Western Kentucky

Chapter Three integrates previous research on solutions journalism and engaged journalism into a communication infrastructure theory framework, which looks at the health of local “storytelling network” ties between local media, organizations, and residents. This framework is used to assess storytelling networks, then design and pilot interventions to strengthen them. It focuses on Western Kentucky, an economically marginalized, but more rural region with a different demographic and political context to previous urban cases. The chapter explores how place identity and political polarization affect ties between residents, community groups, and local journalists. It then looks at a series of pilot interventions that grew out of a participatory design process—including an online and offline town hall, a participatory journalism program, and a series of listening sessions focused on informal rural gathering spaces. It explores how these interventions address key trustworthiness factors, and account for the needs and assets of local places.

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