A recent study conducted by Mary Beth Oliver, Penn State associate professor of communications, provides evidence that racial stereotypes distort consumers' memories of crime stories. The study showed that people are likely to associate pictures of blacks with violent crimes.

Participants in the study, who were all white, were first given a background questionnaire regarding their social and racial attitudes. They were then presented with short newspaper stories and photographs portraying an equal number of black and white male suspects in both violent and non-violent crimes. After studying the articles, participants were shown photographs of blacks and whites and asked to name which men were involved in the crimes.

Oliver found that when participants were asked to identify the suspects pictured in the stories, they were more likely to misidentify African-American than white suspects.

"The ability to identify the crime suspects was unrelated to the participants' self-reported racial attitudes," she said.

Oliver said while the articles in her study included an equal proportion of black and white suspects, blacks are over-represented in the media as criminal suspects. She referred to the work of University of California professor Travis Dixon, which found that the percentage of crimes involving black suspects reported in local television news is greater than that of actual arrest rates.

Black Caucus President David Davis (junior-journalism) said that as someone who is involved with both media and black culture, the results of the study do not surprise him.

"These stereotypes exist because people are constantly bombarded with images of African Americans in the evening news," Davis said. "I think the media must work to rectify this problem and portray African Americans in a different light. The crimes are committed on both sides of the fence."

Oliver said the increased amount of time spent consuming media in this country heightens the importance of viewing news under a more critical light.

"We need to be, as a culture, aware of and sensitive to the stereotypes that exist in the media," she said.

Dennis Davis, head of the Penn State media studies department, said the media studies program is concerned with cultivating this awareness in students.

"One of the intents of the media studies curriculum is to help students develop a more critical attitude towards the media," he said.