Asian Americans and the Mass Media

Asian Americans are the fastest growing minority in the United States comprising nearly 3 percent of the population, yet they are rarely given coverage in the U.S. media, as this book demonstrates. This book, written by an 11-year reporter of The Washington Post who is now an Associate Dean at Ithaca College, is broad in scope and studies the relationship between mass media and this important minority, including: 1) examines the scope and type of coverage afforded Asian Americans in mainstream newspapers through a content analysis of twenty leading newspapers for the year March 1, 1994 to February 28, 1995; 2) examines the opinions of Asian Americans who work in print, radio, and television media both in mainstream media and specialized Asian American media, through a survey asking their negative and positive experiences on the job as related to their ethnicity, and their opnions on how well the media cover Asian Americans; and 3) an historical examination of Asian Americans and media treatment of Asian Americans, and specialized publications serving Asian Americans. No other book has looked at media coverage of Asian Americans as in-depth as this fascinating account of how attitudes towards Asian Americans are shaped in America through questionable coverage of this diverse segment of the population.