The conventional wisdom holds that mainstream news reporting about Native Americans and tribes is disproportionately negative. The Score is an attempt to test whether that assumption holds true in Wyoming. We also want to see what effort Wyoming journalists and news outlets are making to report positive news from Indian Country. To make things simple, we lump stories into three broad categories based on overall story tone and content: “positive,” “negative” or “neutral.” We also provide weekly and ongoing tallies of the numbers, as well as headlines and publication sources for each story included in The Score. News from the sports page is not included in The Score.
Today’s tally: 31 positive stories and 39 negative stories about American Indians and tribal governments in the Wyoming news media since Oct. 9, 2011.
- “Cancer-riddled Wind River Reservation fights EPA over uranium contamination” Indian Country Today (reporting on anecdotal concerns that uranium-contaminated water may be causing cancer). NEG.
- “Wind River Casino’s new hotel accepting guests” Wind River News (updating a story about the Northern Arapaho Tribe’s first hotel). POS.
- “Arapahoe schools get new leader” Wind River News (reporting on the new superintendent). NEU.
- “One nation, one people” Wind River News (reporting on participation in Equality Day events by local Native people). POS.
- “Charge in 17 mile crash surfaces against driver” Wind River News (reporting on charges against an Ethete woman stemming from a crash on the reservation). NEG.
- “Jury trial for Ethete pair accused of murder moving to Thermopolis” Wind River News (updating a story about charges stemming from the beating death of an Ethete man). NEG.
- “U.S. Attorney indicts three for assault” KTAK/KVOW (reporting on federal charges against tribal members). NEG.
Posted on January 22, 2012
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