White Supremacy – A study of Racial Representation in Brazilian Television News Media

Abstract

Title White Supremacy – A study of Racial Representation in Brazilian Television News Media Author Malin Håkansson Teles Course Master Thesis in Media- and Communication Studies, Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Gothenburg Semester Spring semester of 2013 Tutor Malin Sveningson Number of pages 58 Purpose To examine how different races are represented in the television news program Jornal Nacional Method Quantitative content analysis and qualitative content analysis Material 52 episodes (one per week) of the Brazilian television news program Jornal Nacional, between 05.04.2012 and 01.04.2013. Main results Whites are gravely overrepresented as a race, while Browns are underrepresented and Blacks are marginally underrepresented (compared to the real population). Asians and Indigenous have statistically uncertain results. Whites tend to be represented in contexts and roles associated with power. Blacks and Browns however, tend to be represented in contexts and roles not associated with power. We can also note that certain roles appear to have a stronger connection to certain races. For example, Law Offenders are associated with Browns and Blacks while Law Defenders are associated with Whites.