Media sensationalism: Colour referents

The use of racially, broad categorical linguistic devices, utilised by the media, also aids in fuelling moral panics in the public domain (Schissel, 1997). Such unnecessary, unfounded, and generalised criminogenic referents to people of colour include Black, Asian and Native. These are used so as to create a negative image of minority youth groups, “creating associations between criminality and race” (Ibid.), thus resulting in the creation of a moral panic; “police raided the locker of a student at Jarvis Collegiate believed to to be a member of an Asian Posse gang” (Globe and Mail, Toronto, Metro Edition, May 23, 1990: A1, A2) and the Alberta Report (July 31, 1995: 25) “she was surrounded by two native girls who pushed her to the ground...” (Schissel, 1997) are two such examples of this, seemingly, benign however, racial media reporting.
Examples displaying, apparent, objective, however subtle, racialised news reports are included below:

         “New immigrants, especially Vietnamese, do make up a slightly higher proportion of youth gang members” (Vancouver Sun, February 3, 1994: B1; cited in Schissel, 1997) - however, the gangs generally involved members of mixed-race composition;
         “Like all of Canada’s major cities, both Edmonton and Calgary have a growing Asian crime problem” (Alberta Report, October 26, 1992: 22; cited in Schissel, 1997) - an ecological fallacy, since, in Edmonton, 35% of the Asian population is composed of Vietnamese; and
         “Police say most youths in the Indian Posse and the Overlords are Aboriginal, while the other two gangs are racially mixed” (Winnipeg Free Press, September 29, 1994: B1; cited in Schissel, 1997) - here, and in most cases, the term racially mixed is used when racial referents are unclear; it actually refers to Caucasians, the term white is never used.

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