This dissertation was a qualitative study that examined newspaper coverage of the Chinese and Irish workers who built the Central Pack and Union Pacific, the two halves of the first transcontinental railroad, between 1865 and 1869. Such comparisons of coverage of non-white and whites are a much-ignored area in journalism history, especially in regards to the Chinese, and especially on a scale that would permit generalization to other groups at other periods.; Among the findings in this study was that whereas the Chinese were disparaged by the press both individually and as an ethnic group, the Irish were criticized only as a group. The Chinese almost always appeared in stories that portrayed them as criminals who were arrested for burglaries, indecent exposure, and soliciting for prostitution. On the other hand, the Irish were portrayed as fighters and arrested almost exclusively for disorderly conduct and drunkenness. Stories about the Chinese focused on facial features such as eye shape, while stories about members of both groups highlighted characteristics such as accent, low intelligence in the Chinese, and ignorance in the Irish.; These findings are important because concentrations of negative coverage would have resulted in stereotyping. The Chinese workers were seldom identified by name, whereas Caucasian ones almost always were. These differences in coverage can be ascribed to biases in society and different journalistic standards during the 1860s.
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