Controlling Images of Neighborhoods in Gentrification Coverage

Abstract

Abstract Prior literature has largely used the concept of “controlling images” to explain how the news media and other institutions use racialized and gendered stereotypes to control marginalized groups. This article extends the concept of controlling images to neighborhoods using 583 newspaper articles about gentrification in San Francisco. Using qualitative and spatial analysis, I demonstrate how controlling images exist in media through representations, underrepresentations, and omissions in the form of three controlling images of neighborhoods: “The apolitical Asiantown” appears through the omission of Asian neighborhoods and Asian residents of other gentrifying neighborhoods, “the immigrant barrio” through the underrepresentation of Latinx residents and centering of White residents in Latinx neighborhoods, and “the violent ’hood” through the focus on issues of blight, crime, and violence in Black neighborhoods. The findings contribute to our understanding of how institutional racism operates not only through racist representations, but also through racist exclusions.