The media portrayal of majority and minority groups: Understanding the media’s role in constructing similarities and differences

• Applicant: Dr. Stefanie Walter, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 444538932

States transform due to migration flows and processes of transnationalization and globalization. In pluralist societies, the media can act as brokers between citizens of different social groups. It is via the media that people learn how the lives of others are similar to or different from their own and through which people construct differences between them. The aim of this project is to reveal similarities and differences in the media portrayal of majority and minority groups by studying them comparatively. Extant research has primarily focused on the news media portrayal of minority groups and migrants in particular, but has not taken the news coverage of majority groups into account. A simultaneous analysis of majority and minority groups is important, because only comparative analysis can reveal whether and how minorities are constructed as similar or different to the majority group. While similarities in their portrayal and an emphasis on shared attributes may improve intergroup relations, a focus on differences may lead to intergroup conflicts. While mainstream news media reflect the perspective of the majority group, minority media might provide alternative and more heterogeneous perspectives. Comparisons of the media coverage of a) majority and minority groups and b) mainstream and minority media are largely absent, but of vital importance for understanding how similarities and differences between groups are established in public discourses, which may in turn contribute to harmonious or conflictual intergroup relations. The overarching research questions of this project are: How similar or different is the media portrayal of majority and minority groups? How does their portrayal vary in mainstream news and minority media? It will explore changes across time and take explanatory factors related to their coverage into account. Empirically, the mainstream news media sample will include newspaper articles and TV news from elite, mass, and regional news media from Germany, Poland, the UK, and the US from a period of 20 years. The study of minority media will comprise outlets that address minority groups based on their nationality/ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation from the five countries. The methodology will have a quantitative and a qualitative component. The mainstream news media will be analyzed using different methods of automated text analysis. This will allow studying the news coverage of majority and minority groups systematically and at a scale previously impossible. For the analysis of minority media, a qualitative content analysis will be conducted aiming at understanding how majorities and minorities are constructed from the perspective of minority groups. Both types of media will also be studied comparatively using a mixed-method approach.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups
• International Connection: Ireland, United Kingdom, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Erik Bleich; Dr. Dorota Szelewa; Dr. Lukasz Szulc