Prevalence of Prejudice-Denoting Words in News Media Discourse
* manuscript “Prevalence of Prejudice-Denoting Words in News Media Discourse: A Chronological Analysis”. By David Rozado, Musa Al-Gharbi and Jamin Halberstadt.
URL = https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08944393211031452 summary
Summary
David Rozado:
“I recently published an article with Musa Al-Gharbi and Jamin Halberstadt where we analyzed the prevalence of words denoting prejudice in 27 million news and opinion articles written between 1970 and 2019 and published in 47 of the most popular news media outlets in the United States such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal or Fox News, see AllSides Media Bias Chart v1.1 [1] in Figure 1. Our analysis focused primarily on tracking the prevalence of words that describe prejudice such as racism, sexism, islamophobia, anti-Semitism and homophobia. We then examined the relationship between the usage of prejudice-denoting terms in written news media and other factors, such as news outlets’ ideological leanings or the prevalence of prejudice-signifying words in cable news. We also attempted to elucidate whether the prevalence of prejudice denoting words in news media discourse changed before or after 2015, a significant year that marked the beginning of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election campaign. Our analysis continued by investigating whether some outlets preceded others on the usage dynamics of prejudice denoting words. Finally, we examined the relationship between the prevalence of prejudice denoting words in news media discourse and public opinion perceptions about prejudice severity in the wider society.”
(https://davidrozado.substack.com/p/ppdwnmd)
Discussion
From the Conclusion, by David Rozado:
"Our results document a marked increase in the prevalence of prejudice-denoting words in news media discourse within the 2010-2019 time frame. The trend precedes the emergence of Donald Trump in the political landscape for most of the terms analyzed but appears to accelerate after 2015. The abrupt and dramatic changes in word frequencies suggest the existence of powerful underlying social dynamics at play.
It is noteworthy that prejudice-denoting words are markedly increasing in prevalence alongside long-term decreases in overt expression of prejudice [6]-[9] yet recent increases in the perceived prevalence of such prejudice among the general public. “