In the wake of growing legalization efforts, both medicinal and recreational marijuana use in the US is becoming more prevalent and societally acceptable. However, racial, criminal and cultural stereotypes linger in mediated visual portrayals. This study examines the extent to which mediated visual portrayals in mainstream news have been impacted by these recent legalization efforts. Employing a quantitative as well as a qualitative analysis of visual images used to represent marijuana use in mainstream news, this study draws upon the power of visual framing and the construction of social reality to examine how visual symbols and iconic signifiers are used to construct both stereotypical and ‘mainstreamed’ or ‘normative’ depictions of marijuana use. Analyzing 458 visuals across 10 different media outlets across the political spectrum, both before and after legalization of marijuana in Colorado, this study shows how news portrayals perpetuated stereotypes about marijuana users, particularly around criminality and pot-culture iconography. Relatively few depictions of marijuana users in the US are visuals of ordinary, ‘normal’ people or families. This study thus interrogates the relationship between representations of race, criminality and ‘pothead’ stereotypes associated with marijuana use, and how these visual representations differ amongst liberal and conservative news sites, finding that the political ideology of the news outlet largely influences the visual stereotyping of marijuana users. The study concludes by considering both the legal and cultural implications of how mainstream news visually represents marijuana use, considering how persistent decades-old representations were largely perpetuated rather than challenged in light of legalization efforts.

中文翻译：

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美国新闻媒体中的大麻使用者：对种族、文化、犯罪和规范的视觉刻板印象的考察

随着越来越多的合法化努力，美国的药用和娱乐大麻使用变得越来越普遍，也越来越为社会所接受。然而，种族、犯罪和文化刻板印象在中介视觉描绘中挥之不去。本研究考察了主流新闻中的中介视觉描绘在多大程度上受到这些最近的合法化努力的影响。本研究对用于代表主流新闻中大麻使用情况的视觉图像进行定量和定性分析，利用视觉框架的力量和社会现实的构建来检验视觉符号和标志性能指如何用于构建两种刻板印象以及对大麻使用的“主流”或“规范”描述。分析跨政治领域的 10 个不同媒体的 458 个视觉效果，在科罗拉多州大麻合法化之前和之后，这项研究展示了新闻描绘如何延续对大麻使用者的刻板印象，特别是在犯罪和大麻文化图像方面。在美国，对大麻使用者的描绘相对较少是普通、“正常”人或家庭的形象。因此，这项研究询问了与使用大麻相关的种族、犯罪和“笨蛋”刻板印象之间的关系，以及这些视觉表征在自由派和保守派新闻网站之间有何不同，发现新闻媒体的政治意识形态在很大程度上影响了人们的视觉刻板印象大麻使用者。该研究最后考虑了主流新闻如何在视觉上代表大麻使用的法律和文化影响，