Elihu Katz Colloquium: Dana Mastro, University of California, Santa Barbara

"Threat as News: Examining the Ways that News Coverage of Immigration Constrains Marginalized Groups"

This event will be held on Zoom. The link to join will be emailed to the Annenberg community on the day of the event.

About the Talk

Although U.S. media portrayals of racial, ethnic, and other underserved communities vary based on the group, platform, and genre, generally speaking these groups tend to be both underrepresented and unfavorably depicted across the media landscape. This talk addresses this issue with a particular focus on coverage of immigration. Specifically, the manner in which U.S. news characterizes immigration and immigrants will be addressed followed by a discussion of empirical research investigating how variations in the themes in this content affect opinions about, feelings toward, and behaviors regarding immigration and immigrants among both 'dominant' and underserved group audiences.

About the Speaker

Dana Mastro is Professor of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research examines the influence of exposure to stereotypical racial/ethnic content in the media on social perceptions, identity, and interethnic/racial relations in society. This program of research is evidenced in three primary ways in her work. First, her research documents depictions of racial/ethnic groups (primarily Latinos) across media platforms and genres. Next, her work assesses the extent to which exposure to these characterizations influences White consumers’ real-world race-related cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. Last, her studies explore the degree to which media use impacts on the self-concept and social perceptions of Latinos. In testing these relationships across digital and traditional media contexts, her research incorporates a broad range of quantitative methods and diverse bodies of literature.