Anti-Asian Hate Crime in U.S. National News: A Content Analysis of Coverage and Narratives from 2010–2021

• Author: Ráchael A. Powers,Kacy Bleeker,Crystal Alcalde
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/21533687221120949
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Anti-Asian Hate Crime in U.S.

National News: A Content

Analysis of Coverage and

Narratives from 2010–2021

Ráchael A. Powers

1

, Kacy Bleeker

1

,

and Crystal Alcalde

2

Abstract

Research on the media’s portrayal of Asian American crime victims has largely

entailed content analyses of specif‌ic high-prof‌ile cases, partly because Asian

Americans have been largely ignored in the media. The current study examines

national news coverage (2010–2021) of both specif‌ic anti-Asian hate crime incidents

as well as articles that discuss the rise in hate crime against the Asian American com-

munity. We also include anti-Hispanic hate crime articles over the same time period

as a comparison group. In doing so, we examine the extent of coverage, portrayals of

victims and perpetrators, including stereotypes of Asian Americans, and how the inci-

dents are situated in a larger context of violence against racial minorities. While there

were similarities between the groups in the media narratives, such as the offender’s

race rarely being mentioned, there were notable differences as well. For

example, articles on Asian Americans were more likely to portray hate crime as a

new phenomenon, but also more likely to include quotes from victims and/or their

families. The f‌indings have implications for the media’s role in shaping the social con-

sequences of pandemics.

Keywords

Asian American, hate crime, COVID-19, victimization, content analysis

1

Department of Criminology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

2

College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Ráchael A. Powers, Department of Criminology, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., SOC

107, Tampa, FL 33620, USA.

Email: powersr@usf.edu

Article

Race and Justice

2023, Vol. 13(1) 32-54

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/21533687221120949

journals.sagepub.com/home/raj

Introduction

A“secondary contagion”has accompanied COVID-19, marked by an epidemic of dis-

crimination and violence against Asian Americans (Chen et al., 2020).

1

Following

early Google trend data, Vachuska (2020) found evidence of racial animus stemming

from COVID-19. Racial slurs aimed at Asian Americans used as search terms rose sub-

stantially during the early period of the viral outbreak. Stop AAPI Hate, a watchdog

website that tracks hate crime against Asian Americans, reported that 10,370 hate inci-

dents were reported to them between March 19

th

, 2020 and September 30

th

, 2021 (Stop

AAPI Hate, 2021). Likewise, a nationally representative survey launched by Stop

AAPI Hate found that one in f‌ive Asian Americans experienced a hate incident.

While many of these were verbal harassment and shunning behaviors, a non-trivial

proportion were physical violence, being spat on, and property destruction/vandalism

(Stop AAPI Hate, 2021). Hate crimes, discrimination, and shunning can result in

lasting physical and mental trauma for affected communities (Chen et al., 2020).

These incidents stemmed in part from media reports citing public off‌icials who at

the time tied the virus to China (Gover et al., 2020), which is a practice that is

strongly condemned by the World Health Organization (WHO) as it can f‌lame

fears and incite violence (WHO, 2015). Agenda-setting theory of mass communica-

tions suggests that the media’s attention to an issue and the narratives surrounding

that issue inf‌luence public opinion about the importance of an issue and how

people should feel about it (McCombs, 2005; McCombs & Shaw, 1972). For

example, strong support for media agenda-setting impacting Hispanic Americans

was found following former President Trump’s rhetoric surrounding immigration

and identity politics (Papakyriakopoulos & Zuckerman, 2021). Despite the well doc-

umented stereotypes of Asian Americans that have begun or have been perpetuated

through the media, very little research on media coverage of Asian Americans exists.

Understanding media narratives surrounding Asian American hate crime is important

as research has found an association between negative portrayals of minorities in the

news and incidences of hate crime (Hanes & Machin, 2014; Papakyriakopoulos &

Zuckerman, 2021). Likewise, the media’s attention and narratives surrounding

hate crime against Asian Americans has the potential to exacerbate feelings of isola-

tion and concerns of institutional racism. These concerns may present barriers for

Asian Americans reporting victimization to the police (Koo et al., 2015; Lantz &

Wenger, 2021).

Research on the media’s portrayal of Asian American crime victims has largely

entailed content analyses of specif‌ic high-prof‌ile cases, partly because Asian

Americans have been largely ignored in the media (Poindexter et al., 2003). While

important and valuable information stems from these studies, it is diff‌icult to situate

these in the larger literature on the portrayal of crime victims. To that end, the

purpose of this study is to examine, through content analysis, the national news cov-

erage of anti-Asian American hate crime. This study examines both the extent of cov-

erage and nature of media framing of anti-Asian hate crime. Further, we compare these

to the media’s coverage of anti-Hispanic hate crime during the same time frame to

Powers et al. 33