Got a Jewel and She’ll Be Home for Christmas made it clear that the article was
celebrating the family being created by transracial adoption.
Less than one-tenth of the article titles fell into the negative category (5.0% negative,
1.7% very negative) (Table 4). These titles often noted issues in the adoption system
such as Adoption Agency Rules Called Unfair to Blacks. One-fifth of the articles were
prefaced by a neutral title such as Navajo Court Will Rule on Adoption by Whites. It is
important, however, to note that although a neutral title may not seem to portray
transracial adoption as an explicitly positive or negative practice, it could be coupled
with a picture communicating a less neutral message to the browsing reader.
Thirty-three of the sixty articles included pictures of which the majority portrayed
transracial adoption very positively (63.6%) (Table 5). A picture of a smiling
transracially adoptive family portrayed transracial adoption as a positive practice despite
a neutral title.
Overall, the articles’ titles, pictures, and content portrayed transracial adoption as a
positive phenomenon and practice. A small number called attention to issues in the
practice of transracial adoption or noted concerns about the broader affects of the
phenomenon. A few articles simply reported on a transracial adoption-related news
piece noting positive and negative aspects, but again these articles were highly
outnumbered by positive portrayals.
[INSERT TABLES 3, 4 AND 5 HERE]
Convention