1st Edition

US Media and Diversity Representation, Dissemination, and Effects

Edited By Travis L. Dixon, Dana Mastro Copyright 2025
    246 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This volume fully illuminates the role of diversity in media representation, dissemination, and effects across various platforms, including social media. Against a backdrop of shifting demographics and increasing diversity, the book highlights the implications for media consumption patterns and explores the simultaneous rise in online hate.

    Organized into three thematic sections, the book first centers people of color in the discussion of media stereotypes and identity, considering the impact of technology on such identities. This volume then moves to analyze the news media, and how stereotypes are presented and perpetuated, before focusing on paradigm shifts brought on by critical media effects and counter-stereotyping research. The empirical studies and theoretical analyses push readers to imagine better how Communication scholars can advance this essential work at a precarious time in history.

    Budding and senior scholars interested in understanding stereotypical media representations and effects will gain insights from this critical and timely book, and it will interest those working in the areas of media and communication, media representation, social justice, diversity and inclusion, media sociology, social media, and journalism.

    Series Editor’s Foreword                                                                                                                                                   

    HAIGH, M.M.                                                                                                      

    Foreword- US Media and Diversity: Representation, Dissemination, and Effects                                                                     

    DIXON, T. 

    Section 1: Identity and Media

    1. Influencing Others through Race-Related Expression: An Examination of Black, Latina, and White Female Celebrities’ Social Media Posts                                                                                                                                                       

    MOLINA-ROGERS, N. & MASTRO, D. 

    2. Making the Model: How News Media Perpetuate Harmful Model Minority Stereotypes of Asian Americans             

    JOSEY, C., CEN, X., & RILES, J.

    3. Streaming While Black: An Exploration of Black Streaming Subscribers’ Perceptions of “Black Voices” Content and its Relationship with Racial Identification and Perceived Vitality                                                                                 

    SANDERS, M.

    4. Psychological Distress, Addiction, and Unique Ties to Blackness: An Overview of Representations Highlighting the Intersection of Race and Mental Health                                                                                                                           

    RILES, J., OLAJIRE, A., & JOSEY, C.

    Section 2: Interrogating News Content and Effects of Exposure

    5. The Portrayal of Black Family Social Instability: A Content Analysis of Family and Race across Traditional and New Media Sources                                                                                                                                                             

    WEEKS, K., DIXON, T., BUTKOWSKI, C., SMITH, M., BENEVENTO, S., ROLLINS, D., & TOLBERT, A.

    6. Dehumanizing Black Children and Treating them Like Adults: Ingroup Favoritism and Outgroup Derogation in Evaluating Children Criminal Suspects in News Stories                                                                                                                     

    APPIAH, O. & HOLT, L. 

    7. Disentangling Latinos and Immigrants: The Role of Shame and Anger in Response to Group-Threatening News Coverage                                                                                                                                                                     

    FIGUEROA-CABALLERO, A., SMITH, B., & MASTRO, D.

    Section 3: Re-envisioning Media Models and Paradigms

    8. Digital Deconstructions and Research Reconsiderations: A Critical Media Effects Approach to Race in Digital Spaces   

    BANJO, O., CORSBIE-MASSAY, C., TORNER, E., RAMASUBRAMANIAN, S., & TAYLOR, R.

    9. “Abbott Elementary” and the Resilient Black Girl Dork: Reimaging Black Womanhood                                           

    CUPID, S., HARRIS, T., WINFIELD, A., HARRIS, R., & BUTLER, D. 

    10. Black Audiences’ Digital Media Use and Favorable Outcomes                                                                                     

    STAMPS, D.

    11. Mediated Counter-Narratives: A Framework for Studying Media Stereotyping and the Reclaiming of Stories by Marginalized Groups                                                                                                                                                             

    BEHM-MORAWITZ, E. & VALERIUS, D.

    Biography

    Travis L. Dixon (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara) is the David L. Swanson Professor of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Dixon is a media effects scholar specializing in investigating the prevalence of stereotypes in the mass media and the impact of stereotypical imagery on audience members.

    Dana Mastro (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is Professor of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently serving as Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel. Her research documents representations of ethnic/racial groups in the media and examines the effects of exposure to these depictions on perceptions of self as well as interethnic/interracial dynamics in society and policy decision-making.