Faculty Sponsor: Erika Franklin Fowler
Abstract: In recent years, Americans have held largely negative opinions of news media, but still consistently trust local news more than national news; therefore, local news coverage of prevalent social issues should be carefully considered. Wesleyan Media Project investigations have found that local news coverage of structural racism following George Floyd’s murder has declined, while coverage of critical race theory, and subsequently diversity, equity, and inclusion has increased. One key component to understanding coverage of these topics is station ownership. Local news station acquisitions by Sinclair Broadcast Group have been shown to increase coverage of controversy, as well as shift coverage ideologically to the right. This project aims to further explore Sinclair’s role in local news coverage of racism-related topics. The preliminary analysis of volume and sentiment of 22,423 local TV news stories about DEI (spanning from 1/06/ 2020 to 12/31/2023) finds that, after DEI story volume increased in early 2023, mean story sentiment across all stations was slightly less positive. Additionally, stories from Sinclair-owned stations appeared to have slightly less positive sentiment than stories from non-Sinclair-owned stations.
Summer-2024-poster