Abstract
This article offers a critique of press coverage of recent demographic trends in the United States. It focuses on the reporting of statistics on race and ethnicity released by the US Census Bureau in 2003, when the public was first informed of a historical `benchmark': `Hispanics' had become `the nation's largest minority'. Based on a frame analysis of stories published in 20 mainstream, nine Latino and 10 African-American publications, the article traces dominant patterns in news discourses that privileged conflict and competition as the preferred frame for the interpretation of population trends and their implications for inter-ethnic relations between Blacks and Latinos. It also shows how nuances in the discursive strategies of these media reveal a symbolic contest that included minority reproduction and contestation of mainstream and official government reports.
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