Citation

Intravia J, Pickett JT. Sociol. Forum 2019; 34(3): 616-642.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Eastern Sociological Society, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/socf.12515

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A substantial body of research indicates that television news consumption is associated with criminal stereotyping. However, less is known about how online media, such as Internet news and social media news consumption, is associated with such attitudes. Using a multisite sample of mostly young adults, the current study examines the relationships between multiple types of online news consumption and crime news engagement on racially typifying African Americans as violent, property, and drug offenders.

FINDINGS reveal that Internet news consumption is negatively related, but social media news consumption is positively related, to racially typifying African Americans as criminals. Beyond consumption, social media crime news engagement is negatively related to racial typification. Last, there is some evidence that the association between online media consumption and engagement varies by race and political ideology.

FINDINGS and direction for future research is discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

media consumption; news; public opinion; race; social media; stereotypes