This study investigates how major media outlets, particularly CNN and Fox News, presented the “Unite the Right Rally” in Charlottesville Virginia. A computer-assisted content analysis was conducted on 1-week online news articles about the rally from the two networks. Evidence from Topic Modeling and Sentiment analysis suggests that CNN and Fox News share similarities in reporting the rally regardless of their target audiences. The findings demonstrate the efforts made by the media to uphold color-blindness ideology, underplay racial conflict, and subtly normalize white supremacy. The main contribution of this paper lies in (a) offering empirical evidence of media effect, (b) extending the examination of media effect from traditional forms to the online platform, (c) reexamining the political leaning the media posits, and (d) bridging media study and color-blind racism.

这项研究调查了主要媒体，特别是CNN和Fox News在弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔举办的“团结右集会”。对来自两个网络的反弹进行的为期1周的在线新闻文章进行了计算机辅助内容分析。主题建模和情感分析的证据表明，CNN和Fox News在报道集会上有着相似之处，无论其目标受众是什么。这些发现证明了媒体为维护色盲意识形态，淡化种族冲突以及巧妙地规范白人至上所作的努力。本文的主要贡献在于（a）提供媒体效果的经验证据，（b）将媒体效果的研究从传统形式扩展到在线平台，（c）重新审查媒体的政治倾向，