Violent trends in hip-hop entertainment journalism: a content analysis of hip-hop websites & radio programming

Violence in hip-hop music has been associated with violent attitudes and behaviors among youth. Research has shown that hip-hop music provides ample opportunities for mediated modeling through its lyrics and videos. However, a largely overlooked medium may also offer opportunities for modeling. Hip-hop [entertainment] journalism reports on hip-hop and celebrity-related news including violence in personal and professional lives. Identifying the prevalence, types, and portrayals of violence in hip-hop journalism could offer insight regarding violent messages reaching young audiences. This study is the first to explore violent content on hip-hop websites and radio programming. A content analysis was conducted on 1,267 randomly selected news and interview articles from three self-identified hip-hop websites, and 56 radio interviews randomly selected from four self-identified hip-hop radio stations that were published or aired between 2009 and 2010. All units were coded for the presence of violence, violent categories, and reality status, narrative sequence, and tone. Among all articles, 52.3% (n=663) had at least one violent reference in either text or pictures. Rates of violence were higher for interview articles (73.4%, n=218) than news articles (45.9%, n=445). Among all articles, the most common types of violence were violent metaphors, weapons, feuding (i.e., verbal aggression), and fighting. A total of 916 unique violent accounts (references) were recorded for news articles, and 860 were recorded for interview articles. The majority of news (50.5%, n=463) and interview (39.4%, n=339) references occurred in real life. The majority of news (46.2%, n=423) and interview (61.5%, n=395) references used performer sequences. The majority of news references were presented in a negative tone (discouraging violence) (31.8%, n=565) while the majority of interview references were presented positively (encouraging violence) (38.7%, n=333). Regarding radio interviews, 66.1% (n=37) contained violence. A total of 115 violent references were recorded. The majority (47.6%, n=57) of violent references occurred in real life. The majority (45.2%, n=52) of references were presented from the performer sequence. The majority of radio references (40%, n=46) were positively portrayed. Future research should explore the extent to which the audience receives violent messages communicated in hip-hop journalism, and how they interpret such messages.Dr.P.H.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Tyree T. Oredei