IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/16624.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Visual Representation and Stereotypes in News Media

Author

Listed:
  • Ash, Elliott
  • Durante, Ruben
  • Grebenshchikova, Mariia
  • Schwarz, Carlo

Abstract

We propose and validate a new method to measure gender and ethnic stereotypes in news reports, using computer vision tools to assess the gender, race and ethnicity of individuals depicted in article images. Applying this approach to 700,000 web articles published in the New York Times and Fox News between 2000 and 2020, we find that males and whites are overrepresented relative to their population share, while women and Hispanics are underrepresented. Relating images to text, we find that news content perpetuates common stereotypes such as associating Blacks and Hispanics with low-skill jobs, crime, and poverty, and Asians with high-skill jobs and science. Analyzing news coverage of specific jobs, we show that racial stereotypes hold even after controlling for the actual share of a group in a given occupation. Finally, we document that group representation in the news is influenced by the gender and ethnic identity of authors and editors.

Suggested Citation

  • Ash, Elliott & Durante, Ruben & Grebenshchikova, Mariia & Schwarz, Carlo, 2022. "Visual Representation and Stereotypes in News Media," CEPR Discussion Papers 16624, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:16624
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP16624
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anjali Adukia & Alex Eble & Emileigh Harrison & Hakizumwami Birali Runesha & Teodora Szasz, 2023. "What We Teach About Race and Gender: Representation in Images and Text of Children’s Books," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(4), pages 2225-2285.
    2. repec:nas:journl:v:115:y:2018:p:e3635-e3644 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Alberto Chong & Eliana La Ferrara, 2009. "Television and Divorce: Evidence from Brazilian Novelas," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 458-468, 04-05.
    4. Robert Jensen & Emily Oster, 2009. "The Power of TV: Cable Television and Women's Status in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1057-1094.
    5. Eliana La Ferrara & Alberto Chong & Suzanne Duryea, 2012. "Soap Operas and Fertility: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 1-31, October.
    6. Alberto Chong & Eliana La Ferrara, 2009. "Television and Divorce: Evidence from Brazilian Novelas," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 458-468, 04-05.
    7. Milena Djourelova, 2020. "Media persuasion through slanted language: Evidence from the coverage of immigration," Economics Working Papers 1720, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    8. David Arnold & Will Dobbie & Peter Hull, 2021. "Measuring Racial Discrimination in Algorithms," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 49-54, May.
    9. Melissa S. Kearney & Phillip B. Levine, 2015. "Media Influences on Social Outcomes: The Impact of MTV's 16 and Pregnant on Teen Childbearing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(12), pages 3597-3632, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kuhn, Andreas, 2022. "The Times Have Changed: Tracking the Evolution of Gender Norms over Time," IZA Discussion Papers 15621, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Kai Gehring & Joop Adema & Panu Poutvaara & Joop Age Harm Adema, 2022. "Immigrant Narratives," CESifo Working Paper Series 10026, CESifo.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ruben Durante & Paolo Pinotti & Andrea Tesei, 2014. "No News, Big News. The political consequences of entertainment TV," Working Papers 063, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    2. Lucas Adrienne M. & Wilson Nicholas L., 2019. "Does Television Kill Your Sex Life? Microeconometric Evidence from 80 Countries," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(4), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Alex Armand & Paul Atwell & Joseph F. Gomes & Yannik Schenk, 2023. "It’s a Bird, it’s a Plane, it’s Superman! Using Mass Media to fight Intolerance," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2023012, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    4. Ralsmark, Hilda, 2017. "Media visibility and social tolerance: Evidence from USA," Working Papers in Economics 703, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    5. Gulesci, Selim & Lombardi, María & Ramos, Alejandra, 2024. "Telenovelas and attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community in Latin America," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. Damiano Argan and Anatole Cheyssson, 2023. "Plurilingualism and Brain Drain: Unexpected Consequences of Access to Foreign TV," Economics Working Papers EUI ECO 2023/01, European University Institute.
    7. Ruben Durante & Paolo Pinotti & Andrea Tesei, 2013. "Voting Alone? The Political and Cultural Consequences of Commercial TV," SciencePo Working papers hal-03460816, HAL.
    8. Eliana La Ferrara, 2016. "Mass Media And Social Change: Can We Use Television To Fight Poverty?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 791-827, August.
    9. Ruben Durante & Paolo Pinotti & Andrea Tesei, 2019. "The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(7), pages 2497-2530, July.
    10. Esther Hauk & Giovanni Immordino, 2014. "Parents, Television and Cultural Change," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(579), pages 1040-1065, September.
    11. Sandrine Mesplé-Somps and & Björn Nilsson, 2020. "Role models and migration intentions," Working Paper 519bfbde-8d2e-4e86-bd62-0, Agence française de développement.
    12. Anti, Sebastian & Zhang, Zhihui, 2023. "Roads, women’s employment, and gender equity: Evidence from Cambodia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    13. Chen, Daniel L. & Yeh, Susan, 2016. "How Do Rights Revolutions Occur? Free Speech and the First Amendment," TSE Working Papers 16-705, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    14. Principe, Francesco & Carrieri, Vincenzo, 2020. "Health's kitchen: TV, edutainment and nutrition," Ruhr Economic Papers 883, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    15. Anja Tolonen, 2019. "Endogenous Gender Roles: Evidence from Africa’s Gold Mining Industry," OxCarre Working Papers 209, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    16. Hennighausen, Tanja, 2015. "Exposure to television and individual beliefs: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 956-980.
    17. Peter Bönisch & Walter Hyll, 2015. "Television Role Models and Fertility: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 752, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    18. Banerjee,Abhijit & La Ferrara,Eliana & Orozco Olvera,Victor Hugo, 2019. "The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change : Fighting HIV with MTV," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8998, The World Bank.
    19. Ghada Barsoum & Bruno Crépon & Drew Gardiner & Bastien Michel & William Parienté, 2022. "Evaluating the Impact of Entrepreneurship Edutainment in Egypt: An Experimental Approach," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(353), pages 82-109, January.
    20. Kandpal, Eeshani & Baylis, Kathy, 2019. "The social lives of married women: Peer effects in female autonomy and investments in children," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 26-43.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Stereotypes; Gender; Race; Media; Computer vision; Text analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics
    • C45 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Neural Networks and Related Topics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:16624. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.