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Introduction
Since 1980, the United States has experienced strong population growth of non-White groups, particularly Latinos and Asians (Hobbs and Stoops, 2002). Consequently, by 2000, the country was far more racially and ethnically diverse than in previous decades. Another important demographic trend occurring in recent years is the increasing geographic dispersion of racial and ethnic minorities. For instance, although native and foreign-born Latinos continue to be concentrated in cities like Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and New York City, others have moved to rural locations and metropolitan areas that traditionally have not had a substantial Latino presence (for example, Kandel and Cromartie, 2004; Suro and Tafoya, 2004). Like Latinos, Asians (both natives and foreign-born) have been concentrated geographically, but are rapidly becoming more widely dispersed across the country (Xie and Goyette, 2004; Min, 2006; Massey and Capoferro, 2008). Indeed, by 2005, more recently arriving Asian immigrants were selecting "new destination" states than going to California (Massey and Capoferro, 2008).1
Despite scholarly literature about the recent growth and changing settlement patterns of Latinos and Asians, most Americans were likely to learn about these shifts from mainstream media coverage. The present study investigates how newspaper reporters in Atlanta, a non-traditional settlement area for both Latinos and Asians, represented local racial and ethnic demographic changes, documented in the 2000 Census. Of particular interest are the journalistic practices regarding the use and framing of demographic statistics to describe the size and recent growth of Asians, Latinos, Blacks and Whites in one Atlanta-area county.2 Using the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , the most widely circulated newspaper in the Southeast, the study examines 70 articles from the 4-year period surrounding the collection and widely publicized release of Census 2000 data.
From 1990 to 2000, the Atlanta metropolitan area had the largest population increase of any Southern city; in 2000, Atlanta was the most populated city in the region (US Census Bureau, 2000). African-Americans have a long and rich history in Atlanta and the South (Dorsey, 2004), and the city gained the largest number of African-Americans of any US metropolitan area during the 1990s (Frey, 2003). Moreover, Atlanta is considered an "emerging gateway" for immigrants, with growing foreign-born populations from Mexico, India, China and elsewhere arriving since 1980 (Singer, 2004). As a result...