Twomey, J. L. (2001). Newspaper coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising: Race, place and the story of the “riot”; Racial ideology in African American and Korean American Newspapers. Race, Gender & Class, 8(4), 140. Retrieved March 1, 2007, from GenderWatch (GW) database. (Document ID: 494617291).

Twomey's study compares coverage of the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles in two distinct ethnic media sources: The Los Angeles Sentinel and The Korea Times. Twomey used textual and discourse analyses of hard news articles published for nine days following the April 29, 1992 acquittal of four White police officers accused of beating Rodney King (a Black man).

Both newspapers framed the ensuing riots in similar ways. The Korea Times conveyed themes of Koreans being victimized by Blacks and ignored by Whites—who they hoped would validate their right to be included in mainstream American society. The African American paper largely ignored the "understandable frustration" of Blacks and the violence they were committing by highlighting the moral injustice of the acquittals. Despite the geographic proximity of Korean and Black neighborhoods, each paper either symbolically annihilated or villianized the other's community, as well as the Hispanic community.

The author supports the necessity of an ethnic press, but questions whether Black and Korean opinion leaders failed their communities. Following the King verdict, the two groups failed to recognize fellow minorities as victims of racial injustice. Thus, they unknowingly, “participated in their own domination.” 

Twomey's research seeks, "to understand how the African American and Korean American press constructed the story of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, and how each classified it ‘in terms of the categories of race’ within racial ideology and hierarchy (Hall, 1900:11).” She presents her findings largely through the lens of the dominant, White power structure. Although ethnic media exist within their own hegemony, they constantly seek validation from White America.

The article sheds light on multi-ethnic conflict and its portrayal in the ethnic press, but needs to contain more background information on the histories of African, Korean and Hispanic Americans in Southern California to put the 1992 unrest in better context. There is a great deal of research to be done in this area. According to Twomey, the focus for future studies should be on a sociological perspective of racial hierarchy, for which minority media is an excellent template.

Dr. Jane L. Twomey is an Assistant Professor of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. (Reviewed by Anasa D. Sinegal, Edited by Kara Lawton)