By juxtaposing social responsibility theory with the theory of corporate responsibility to race, this study examines how newspapers combined text and visuals to address the issue of race in the first quarter of the 21st century. Fifteen race reporting projects have been produced since 2015, with most initiated after the death of George Floyd. Our textual and visual analysis shows how education-related reporting projects, apologies for past wrongdoings, and racial reconciliation stories can spotlight racial issues. When analyzing these 15 race reporting projects and 745 photographs, both social responsibility theory and corporate responsibility to race theory help explain the strategies that newspapers use to discuss race in the 21st century.
AbrahamL.AppiahO. (2006). Framing news stories: The role of visual imagery in priming racial stereotypes. Howard Journal of Communications, 17(3), 183–203.
2.
Acosta-AlzuruC.Lester-RoushanzamirE. P. (1999). All you will see is the one you once knew: Portrayals from the Falklands/Malvinas War in the U.S. and Latin American newspapers. Journalism & Communication Monographs, 1(4), 303–345.
3.
AdamsS. (1964, November8). Highways of hope opened for Negroes in the South. St. Petersburg Times, 81(107), 1-A.
4.
Adams-BassV. N.Bentley-EdwardsK. L.StevensonH. C. (2014). That’s not me I see on TV . . .: African American youth interpret media images of Black females. Women, Gender, and Families of Color, 2(1), 79–100. https://doi.org/10.5406/womgenfamcol.2.1.0079
BeilinR. (2005). Photo-elicitation and the agricultural landscape: “Seeing” and “telling” about farming, community and place. Visual Studies, 20(1), 56–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725860500064904
11.
BergerA. A. (2014). Media analysis techniques (5th ed.). Sage.
12.
BiswasM. (2010). An exploratory research: A comparative analysis of mainstream and ethnic media coverage of social policy issues in the economic stimulus plan debate. Journal of Comparative Social Welfare, 26(1), 13–26.
13.
BlanchardM. A. (1974). The Hutchins Commission, The Press and the Responsibility Concept. Journalism Monographs No, 49.
BrundageW. F. (2021). The press and lynching. In FordeK. R.BedingfieldS. (Eds.), Journalism and Jim Crow: White supremacy and the Black struggle for a New America (pp. 83–114). University of Illinois Press.
CahanR.WilliamsM.WithersE. (2019). Revolution in Black and White: Photographs of the Civil Rights Era By Ernest C. Withers. CityFiles Press.
23.
CobbJ.GuarigliaM. (2021). The essential Kerner Commission report. Liveright Publishing Corp.
24.
ColemanR. (2006). The effects of visuals on ethical reasoning: What’s a photograph worth to journalists making moral decisions?Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 83(4), 835–850.
Commission on Freedom of the Press. (1947). A Free and responsible press: A general report on mass communication: Newspapers, radio, motion pictures, magazines, and books. The University of Chicago Press.
27.
DahmenN. S.MillerA. (2012). Redefining iconicity: A five-year study of visual themes of Hurricane Katrina. Visual Communication Quarterly, 19(1), 4–19.
28.
DanielsG. L. (2019). Black Press narratives in the digital age. In DeMarsT. R.TaitG. B. (Eds.), Narratives of storytelling across cultures (pp. 99–111). Lexington Books.
29.
DanielsG. L.TaitG. B.FearsL. M. (2019). Streets and statues in Black and White: Deconstructing America’s racial reality in National Geographic. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, 34(2), 1–11.
Editorial Board (2018, April26). Our shame: The sins of our past laid bare for all to see. The Montgomery Advertiser, p. 1A.
37.
EdringtonC. L.GallagherV. J. (2019). Race and visibility: How and why visual images of Black Lives Matter. Visual Communication Quarterly, 195–207.
38.
EdwardsB. (2018, April24). Divided town struggles to recall truth of 1919 killings: Was it a massacre? A Race riot? Lynchings” version of history vary. Montgomery Advertiser, A7.
39.
“Encounter Hate, Report It.” (2024). Rafu Shimpo Stop Asian Hate Special Issue. Rafu Shimpo, p. 5.
EricksonA. (2016b). Making the unequal metropolis: School desegregation and its limits. The University of Chicago Press.
42.
FahmyS.KellyJ. D.KimY. S. (2007). What Katrina revealed: A visual analysis of the hurricane coverage by news wires and U.S. newspapers. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 84(3), 546–561.
43.
FayneM. W. (2020). The great digital migration: Exploring what constitutes the Black Press online. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 97(3), 704–720.
GoldbergV. (1991). The power of photography: How photographs changed our lives. Abbeville Press.
50.
GoldsteinB. M. (2007). All Photos Lie. In StanczakG. C. (Ed.), Visual research methods: Image, society, and representation: Vol. Visual Research Methods: Image, Society, and Representation (pp. 61–81). Sage. http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0701/2006031955-t.html
51.
GreenbergB. S.HeeterC.BurgoonJ. K.BurgoonM.KorzennyF. (1983). Local newspaper coverage of Mexican Americas. Journalism Quarterly, 60(4), 671–676.
52.
GrimmJ.AndsagerJ. L. (2011). Framing immigration: Geo-ethnic context in California newspapers. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 88(4), 771–788.
HagenR.GolombiskyK. (2018). White space is not your enemy: A beginner’s guide to communicating visually through graphic, web & multimedia design. (3rd ed.) AK Peters/CRC Press.
HayesA. S. (2006). The ethnic press for people of color: A short-lived golden era? In MeissG. T.TaitA. A. (Eds.), Ethnic media in America: Building a system of their own Book 1 (pp. 41–79). Kendall/Hunt Publishing.
KableS.YuN.WhitesideE. (2007). Another disaster: An examination of portrayals of race in Hurricane Katrina coverage. Visual Communication Quarterly, 14, 75–89.
72.
KeithS. (2014). Back to the 1990s? Comparing the discourses of 20th-and 21st-century digital image ethics debates. Visual Communication Quarterly, 21(2), 61–71.
73.
KingG. (2013). Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the dawn of a new America. Harper Perennial.
74.
KobreK. (2008). Photojournalism: The professional’s approach (6th ed.). Focal Press.
75.
LehrmanS.WagnerV. (2019). Introduction. In LehrmanS.WagnerV. (Eds.), Reporting inequality: Tools and methods for covering race and ethnicity (pp. 2–7). Routledge.
76.
LoganN. (2019). Corporate personhood and the corporate responsibility to race. Journal of Business Ethics, 154, 977–988.
77.
LoganN. (2021). A theory of corporate responsibility to race (CRR): Communication and racial justice in public relations. Journal of Public Relations Research, 33(1), 6–22.
MartindaleC. (1985). Coverage of Black Americans in five newspapers since 1950. Journalism Quarterly, 62(2), 321–328, 436.
83.
MatsaganisM. D.KatzV. S.Ball-RokeachS. J. (2011). Understanding ethnic media: Producers, consumers, and societies. Sage.
84.
McElroyK. (2014). Basket case: Framing the intersection of “Linsanity” and Blackness. Howard Journal of Communications, 25, 431–451.
85.
McKeeA. (2003). Textual Analysis: A beginner’s guide. Sage.
86.
MeissG. T.TaitA. A. (2006). Ethnic media in America: Building a system of their own Book 1. Kendall/Hunt Publishing.
87.
MellingerG. (2013). Chasing newsroom diversity: From Jim Crow to affirmative action. University of Illinois Press.
88.
MellingerG. (2020). A parallel reality: The challenges of Black Press history. Journalism & Communication Monographs, 22(4), 342–347.
89.
MellingerG. (2024). Racializing objectivity: How the White Southern Press used journalism standards to defend Jim Crow. University of Massachusetts Press.
90.
MellingerG. (2024). A genealogy of newsroom diversity: The Hutchins Commission, the Kerner Commission, and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. In GarzaM. M.FuhlhageM.LuchtT. (Eds.), The Routledge companion to American journalism history (pp. 49–577). Routledge.
91.
MillerK.C.DahmenN. (2020). “This is still their lives”: Photojournalists’ ethical approach to capturing and publishing graphic or shocking images. Journal of Media Ethics, 35(1), 17–30.
MorganA. N.PiferA. I.WoodsK. (2006). The authentic voice: The best reporting on race and ethnicity. Columbia University Press.
94.
MyrdalG. (1944). An American dilemma: The Negro problem and modern democracy (Vol. II). Routledge.
95.
NewtonJ.H.WilliamsR. (2010). Visual ethics: An integrative approach to ethical practice in visual journalism. In MeyersC. (Ed.) Journalism ethics: A philosophical approach. (pp. 331–350). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195370805.003.0022
PetersonT. (1956). The social responsibility of the press. In SiebertF. S.PetersonT.SchrammW. (Eds.), Four theories of the press (pp. 73–103). University of Illinois Press.
PinskyM. (2019b, May8). Maligned in Black and White: Southern newspapers played a major role in racial violence. Do they owe their communities an apology?Poynter.org. https://www.poynter.org/maligned-in-Black-white/
SaldañaJ. (2021). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage.
111.
SchwalbeC. B. (2006). Images of brutality: The portrayal of U.S. racial violence in news photographs published overseas (1957-1963). American Journalism, 23(4), 93–116.
112.
ShahH.NahS. (2004). Long ago and far away: How US newspapers construct racial oppression. Journalism, 5(3), 259–278.
SimmonsC. A. (1998). The African American press: A history of news coverage during national Crisis, with special reference to four Black newspapers 1827-1965. McFarland & Company.
SprattM.BullockC. F.BaldastyG.ClarkF.HalavaisA.McCluskeyM.SchrenkS. (2007). News, race, and the status quo: The case of Emmett Louis Till. The Howard Journal of Communication, 18, 169–192.
StevensS. E.JohnsonO. V. (1990). From Black politics to Black community: Harry C. Smith and the Cleveland Gazette. Journalism Quarterly, 67(4), 1090–1102.
SwensonJ. D.GriswoldW. F. (1993). Reporting race relations as development news: Case studies of journalism in Georgia. Howard Journal of Communications, 4(4), 358–368.
125.
ThomsonT. J. (2016). Black, White and whole lot of gray: How White photojournalists covered race during the 2015 protests at Mizzou. Visual Communication Quarterly, 23, 223–233.
126.
ThomsonT. J. (2019). In front of the lens: The expectations, experiences, and reactions of visual journalism’s subjects. Journalism & Communication Monographs, 21(1), 4–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/1522637918823261
YawnA. (2018b, April24). Lynching memorial’s Path of reconciliation: Equal Justice Initiative’s memorial opens this week. Montgomery Advertiser, p. A.7.
137.
YawnA. (2021, February2). Our top 10 favorite American south stories.
138.
YoungA. (2019). Foreword. In WithersE.C.CahanR.WilliamsM. (Eds.), Revolution in Black and White: Photographs of the Civil Rights Era (p. 17). CityFiles Press.
139.
YuS. S. (2018). Diasporic media: Korean media in Vancouver and Los Angeles. Beyond the Diaspora. UBC Press.
140.
YuS. S.DanielsG. L. (2023). Journalism and ethnoracial minorities. In AllanS. (Ed.), The Routledge compassion to news and journalism (2nd ed., pp. 412–420). Routledge.
141.
ZiffH. M. (1986). Practicing responsible journalism: Cosmopolitan versus provincial models. In ElliotD. (Ed.), Responsible journalism (pp. 151–166). Sage.
