In an effort to better understand the influence of both corporate and state-owned news media on public opinion, the perception of Black criminality, and how that ultimately affects the judicial system for Black Americans, this research will employ a mixed method research design. Mixed method research designs combine “inductive and deductive thinking and reasoning” (Mahmood, 2018). Applying a mix method approach in which both qualitative and quantitative techniques are utilized “allows us to answer questions of substantial importance” (Carey, 1993). The value of using a mix method design in this research, is it will allow for an in-depth analysis of both the different media sources, and the effects they have on viewers opinions, as well as “increase validity in the findings, informing the collection of the second data source, and assisting with knowledge creation” (McKim, 2017, Hurmerinta-Peltomaki et. al, 2006). The intent of employing a mixed method design for this specific research project is with the anticipation that the results from either the qualitative or quantitative method “will complement or further develop the other method” (Hesse-Biber and Leavy, 2011).
The current study aims to address the influence state and corporate media have on public opinions of Black American’s, and how that influences judicial recommendations by asking the following research questions:
RQ1: How does public perception of news media trustworthiness, vary based on whether the news source is corporately owned or state- ran?
RQ2: How does exposure to racially biased corporate media affect the public's perception of criminality within the Black community in relation to judicial outcomes?
RQ3: How does exposure to racially biased state media affect the public's perception of criminality within the Black community in relation to judicial outcomes?
RQ4: Does exposure to racially biased state media, affect members of the general public's recommendations for judicial outcomes differently than exposure to racially biased corporate media?
This research will require a two-part qualitative textual analysis be conducted. According to Pew Research Center, 67% of Americans get their news from some type of social media platform, with Twitter ranking the third most popular platform to share or read the news, after Facebook and YouTube (Gottfried et. al, 2017). Based on accessibility to data on Twitter, the first part of the analysis will analyze content from ten of the most followed police departments on Twitter in order to explore both how police departments, representatives of state-controlled media, utilize the platform with respect to criminal reports and or investigations, as well as how users, representatives of the public, respond to said messages. The second part of the analysis will analyze the Twitter accounts of five prominent traditional news outlets such as, MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox who report the news to a television audience and also maintain a Twitter page. The textual analysis of the Twitter accounts and their subsequent comment section will then help solidify the results from the survey questions for the quantitative study.
In using a cross-sectional design for this research, it is anticipated that I will be able to explore the association between the research’s independent (IV) and dependent (DV) variables and develop a measure of significance for subjects whose fear of crime, and perception of another person’s guilt is affected either positively or negatively by race and exposure to hyper racialized news reporting. A review of existing literature such as Mary Beth Oliver's, (2003) study, and several others, have all utilized cross-sectional studies. These studies, however, did not attempt to measure the relationship between media messages of perceived guilt, and its longer-term connection to criminal convictions. In place of conducting an experiment, the survey a well-established method of assessment for determining the strength of association between the IV and DV will be the most effective and a less time-consuming measurement tool. As such, a survey will be utilized to establish the degree the study’s Independent Variables (IV), state and corporate media influence the Dependent Variables (DV), news consumers attitudes towards crime, their assumptions about its relationship to race, and ultimately their recommendations for judicial punishment.
It is my belief that the use of experimental and control groups will best allow exploration of the study's independent and dependent variables. It is anticipated that the end of the data collection processes the results gathered will help to determine and measure if the type of news platform (state or corporate) (IV) influences the perception of guilt and judicial recommendations for African Americans (DV). Data will be collected using a juror questionnaire which will gather basic beliefs of the juror regarding political beliefs, opinions about new sources, collect general demographics, employ both Likert and Guttmann scales, as well as employ the use of the Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale (Henry. P. J, Sears, D., 2002) (See Appendix A). The second portion of the survey will present participants, “jurors”, with a post from either the police state-owned, or traditional corporate news Twitter accounts, and based on the information provided in the post about the suspect, participants will be prompted to vote on an outcome for that particular case based on the case information they are provided with may be manipulated based on race of the perpetrator, and or crime committed.
The population of significant interest for this cross-sectional study are Americans men and women, aged 18-65 years old, which will be seen as representative of the potential juror population. This research will require a continuous timespan for data collection for the qualitative portion of the research, beginning July 2018- Feb 2019. The Quantitative data collection will have less time as the research will require IRB approval prior to conducting any surveys for them. The IRB forms will be completed at the end of January 2019, and with approval the survey will be promoted via social media, offering a monetary incentive to participants during the month of February. Responses generated from the survey about the news platforms, perceptions of guilt, and judicial recommendations will be analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).
The inability to oversee online surveys threatens the validity of the quantitative research as the participants' focus and engagement is not monitored, therefore it cannot be entirely ensured their answers reflect their true beliefs. Additionally, my role as a Black female researcher may affect my view of the qualitative studies data collection and subsequent analysis as I could be more sensitized to the specific racialized language of both media types, and particularly police media. This could affect what participants see when working in on the survey I create and or language used in the quantitative study. The ethical concerns for this research are the potential negative association's participation may have on non-Black participants, who will be repeatedly exposed to hyper racialized material which they may recognize as true crime depictions and or statistics.
The research aims to closely examine whether perceived guilt weakens or strengthens based on the information source and if it can be directly correlated to news intake. The primary aim of this study is to highlight a meaningful link between how the public is taught by news media to associate aggression, fear, crime, and danger with Black Americans, and how over an extended period of time, that can have real-life implications within the judicial setting.