RACE AND PLACE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES.

The article presents an assessment of race and place in The New York Times. It has frequently been asserted that the media respond differently to black and white news. To a great extent, media coverage, like the races, is rigorously segregated. The contemporary significance of this argument is obvious. This paper seeks to test the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the racial content of a news item and its treatment by The New York Times. The New York Times was chosen as the hard case. It is widely regarded as the leading American daily, and has a well established reputation for fairness in racial matters. Indeed, The Times is more than a newspaper. It is studied carefully both in Washington and in foreign capitols, and it may not be inappropriate to conceive of it as a spokesman for the liberal establishment. Two time periods were chosen for study. The two-year period beginning in May, 1954, was selected because it seemed reasonable to say that the Supreme Court's school desegregation decision thrust the civil rights movement upon the consciousness of the public.