The Other Big News- BLM in TV Evening News in the Time of COVID

• In Event: Media in the Time of COVID

Abstract

How does television news report on overlapping crises of a political nature where one is steeped in the nation’s history racial discrimination and the other is novel and emergent? To assess, we compare evening news coverage of media coverage of the COVID pandemic and BLM-related protests during 2020. Our expectation is that television news prefers story novelty, and shifts away from focus on systemic issues (including racial justice and police brutality) once story novelty wanes. Drawing on Vanderbilt Television News Archive data, we use three interrupted time series designs to evaluate our coverage expectation in 2012, 2014, and 2020 (years where media provided significant, though variable attention to racial justice issues). The 2012 and 2014 analysis provide baseline expectations of evening news coverage patterns of racial justice and police issues that enable comparison of how frequently and consistently the events surrounding George Floyd’s murder were covered in the unfolding medical and political response to COVID. Our findings offer insight on how the broadcast television networks (which still boast the largest combined audience in news) cover racial issues in different, larger news contexts.

Authors

• Aida Ramusovic, University of Cincinnati

• Brian R. Calfano, University of Cincinnati