Identifier

etd-12092004-230815

Degree

Master of Mass Communication (MMC)

Department

Mass Communication

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The study’s purpose was to discover if two Louisiana newspapers gave Louisiana State University’s football team more favorable coverage than that of the team from Southern University, a historically black university. A content analysis of articles published in The Advocate (Baton Rouge) and the Times-Picayune (New Orleans) from the 1995 and 1998 seasons when Southern University’s team accomplished greater success than LSU’s team, and the 2003 season when both teams won national championship titles revealed that while LSU’s team did not receive more prominent coverage and praise than Southern University’s team, racial stereotypes appeared throughout the 667 articles analyzed. Although each team has a predominant number of black players, characteristics stereotypical of white players (intelligence, hard work) were used to describe LSU’s football team, which represents a predominantly white university. Characteristics stereotypical of black players (athletic ability) were used in describing Southern’s football team, which represents a historically black university. Although there was not significantly more black stereotypes used to describe Southern than LSU, LSU players were framed significantly more often as intelligent and hard working than were Southern players. These findings are consistent with modern racism theory.

Date

2005

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Renita Coleman

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.1993

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