Minorities and Communication Division
Faculty Research Competition
Muhammad Ali’s Vietnam War Challenge: An Examination of Framing by the New York Times and the Louisville Courier-Journal • Zainul Abedin, Mississippi Valley State University • This study examines framing of Muhammad Ali’s anti-Vietnam War role by the New York Times and the Louisville Courier-Journal. The trials Ali endured are legendary for his refusal to join the U.S. Army as a conscientious objector. Ali, alias Clay, struggled to uphold self-determination and civil rights especially during the period from 1967 through 1971 when he faced legal barriers and racial discrimination. The study revealed the press, especially popularly known “liberal” Times was disrespectful to Ali’s historic fight for human rights and justice. Ali’s challenge not only helped redefine the law of conscientious objectors protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution but also has long been inspiring other athletes to raise their voices for civil rights.
Communication, Perception of Candidate Ethnicity, and Hispanic Engagement During the 2018 Texas Senate Election • Oluseyi Adegbola; Sherice Gearhart • Existing research indicates that Hispanics tend to support co-ethnic candidates, due in part to the assumption that such candidates will be committed to the Hispanic community. However, candidate ethnicity may differ from perception of candidate ethnicity, especially when attributes about candidate ethnicity may be ambiguous. This study examines the extent to which perception of candidate ethnicity and commitment to the Hispanic community, as well as political communication, guide varying types of political engagement. A survey of Hispanic voters located in Texas (N = 424) was collected during the 2018 Texas senate election featuring Beto O’Rourke (D) and Ted Cruz (R). Results suggest that perceptions of candidate ethnicity and commitment to the Hispanic community are related to active engagement, although findings vary across candidates. Similarly, exposure to political advertising is more closely associated with active rather than passive engagement, while political discussion is related to both outcomes. Implications for political communication and engagement among Hispanics are discussed.
Framing Federal Recognition: Native American Sovereignty and Casinos • CRISTINA Azocar, San Francisco State University • A content analysis of almost 4,000 print, online and broadcast news stories spanning forty years examines mainstream news coverage of the federal recognition of Native American Tribes and the conflation of recognition and gaming. The analysis uses the theories of agenda setting and framing to show how the pattern of coverage of federal recognition has helped the U.S. maintain cultural hegemony of tribes. As predicted, the news media perpetuated ignorance and stereotypes about the sovereignty of Native tribes by keeping tribes’ pursuit of federal recognition off the news agenda, and by overplaying gaming frames and underplaying sovereignty frames.
Fifty Shades of White: Default whiteness and performative speech in television-news coverage of the Charlottesville Unite the Right riot • Angie Chuang, University of Colorado Boulder; Autumn Tyler, University of Colorado Boulder • The violence surrounding the 2017 Unite the Right rally challenged journalists with multiple ambiguities, from euphemistic language like “alt-right” to describe white supremacy, to President Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” statement. This mixed-methods analysis of television-news coverage of events in Charlottesville shows that, in the absence of a racialized “us versus them” narrative, national networks tended to adhere to a default, invisible presumption of whiteness in representations of participants, overlooking counterprotesters of color.
“Through Our Prism”: A Survey of Black Local Sportscasters’ Views and Interactions with Black Athletes • Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Denetra Walker; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Kirstin Pellizzaro, University of South Carolina • Black local sports broadcasters throughout the United States were surveyed to discover how they view media treatment of, and their own interactions with, Black athletes. Results demonstrate that the majority feel the athletes are negatively stereotyped and that, as Black journalists, they have an easier time relating to and telling the story of the Black athlete.
* Extended Abstract * When Do Victims Become Activists? Asian Americans’ Experience with COVID-19 Related Discrimination, Communicative Coping Strategies, and Engagement in Activism • Jungmi Jun; Priscilla Li • Due to the origin of COVID-19, racist and xenophobia attacks against Chinese and Asian Americans have radically increased. We investigate Asian Americans’ COVID-19 related discrimination experience, communicative coping strategies, and engagement in activism. Three relevant communication theories guide the research. Online survey will be conducted with Asian Americans across the US. The findings will guide efforts to combat discrimination of racial/ethnic groups, share effective coping strategies, and empower the victims.
#BlackLivesMatter in Sacramento: Digital Media Maintenance of Black Stereotypes, Protest Repression and the Status Quo • Danielle Kilgo, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities • This research analyzes news representations of the killing of Stephon Clark and protests that followed, while also considering the role social media users play in empowering some narratives over others. Results suggest that the press negatively characterized Clark while avoiding assessment of the characters of police officers. In general, the protests were described as disruptive and emotional, though episodic demands were regularly mentioned. Selective social media sharing amplified the limited coverage about police character.
Coping with Workplace Racial Discrimination: The Moderating Role of Transparent Communication • Queenie Li, University of Miami; Yeunjae Lee, University of Miami; Shiyun Tian, University of Miami; Wanhsiu Tsai • “Based on an integrative framework, this study evaluates whether and how internal communication efforts are connected to racial minority employees’ coping strategies for workplace discrimination to influence their relationship with and communicative behaviors toward their organizations. A survey was conducted with 412 full-time employees working in various industry sectors in the U.S. Results suggest that racial minority employees were likely to choose emotion-focused rather than problem-focused coping strategies. The choice of coping strategies in turn impacted the relational and behavioral employee outcomes. Importantly, transparent communication was found to be a significant moderator that reduces the negative impacts of discrimination experiences while increasing the motivation of adopting problem focused approaches. The theoretical and practical implications were discussed.”
George Wallace and racial polarization in Alabama during the civil rights era: A theory of media legitimacy and political leadership • Ali Mohamed • Existing literature on the relation between media legitimacy and effective political leadership shows the utility of Max Weber’s “charismatic” leader attributes based on a leader’s behavior, his/her political principles, and his/her fidelity to those principles. But few studies so far have considered this relationship between media and charismatic leadership in polarized political contexts. Our examination of Governor George Wallace’s paradoxical relationships with the Birmingham News in 1960s Alabama showed no legitimation of his leadership either during his 1962 campaign for office or during his first term as governor — despite his high popularity and despite News support for his segregationist political platform. The paper strongly opposed manipulation of racial divisions for political gain because of the negative implications of such conflict for Alabama’s prosperity and for the rule of law. The News instead supported Wallace’s opponent, Ryan deGraffenreid, for promoting unity of all Alabamians; and ascribing to him charismatic attributes of honesty, competence, and credibility.
* Extended Abstract * “It’s not a movie, it’s a movement:” Analysis of Asian-Americans in American 2018-2019 films • Patrice Oppliger, Boston University; Siyu Liu, Boston University • This paper will explore and reason the changes in the representations of Asian Americans in U.S. films released in 2018 and 2019. We use Said’s latent and manifest Orientalism as a theoretical framework to analyze the content and production of the four films, Crazy Rich Asians, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Always Be My Maybe and The Farewell.
Chick-Fil-A Vs Popeye’s: Memes of Chicken Wars and Hegemonic Ideologies • Nathian Rodriguez, San Diego State University • The study employed a textual analysis using a lens of encoding and decoding theory and found that Popeye vs Chick-Fil-A memes contained stereotypical racist and classist humor, furthering hegemonic ideologies. It was also found that LGBTQ discourse was also created around the chicken feud, establishing a dichotomy of pro-and anti-LGBTQ stances for Popeyes and Chick-Fil-A, respectively. The findings suggest that hybridity nature of memes can not only reify hegemonic ideologies through digital discourse, but also ascribe those ideologies to organizations, in this case fast food chains, without the organization’s intent or control.
* Extended Abstract * Stevie Wonder, Black Genius and Herald of Music and Media Integration • John Vilanova • This is a historiographic project that uses a corpus of more than 7,000 articles written about the musician Stevie Wonder between 1962 and 1977. It unpacks and analyzes the way media discourses “made” Wonder into an exceptional and unique figure whose music was said to transcend both racial and artistic boundaries. This work illustrates how media was key to Wonder’s acceptance in mainstream music industry and popular culture circles.
Student Papers
Black Maternal Mortality in the Media: How Journalists Cover a Deadly Racial Disparity • Denetra Walker; Kelli Boling, University of South Carolina • Through semi-structured interviews with five news journalists, this study offers an in-depth understanding of journalists covering Black maternal mortality. Discussions include the role of advocacy in journalism as well as the struggle of covering the complex, long-standing systemic issue of maternal mortality associated with race in American society. Three themes discuss a need for journalistic responsibility, the role of media advocacy in public health, and complications when reporting race. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: An Analysis of Attitudes and Perceptions of Body Image Among Young Adult Hispanic Women • Christina Jimenez Najera, Texas Tech University; Othello Richards, Texas Tech University • Research has shown that constant exposure to thin body types and beauty ideals portrayed in media generate negative effects among women. This study focused on exploring attitudes and perceptions of beauty and body image ideals among a young adult Hispanic female population through semi-structured interviews. Preliminary results show that the ideal body type is thinner and “thick”, and beauty is a dualistic concept in which media and family have a direct influence in its construction.
Communicating the culture through Korean food between authenticity and adaptation • Solyee Kim, University of Georgia • This study explores how Korean restaurants in the States promote their businesses by using the Circuit of Culture as a theoretical framework. Five elements in the Circuit, representation, production, consumption, identity, and regulation, provided a contextual understanding of how Korean food is communicated at a local level. In-depth interviews with 10 small business Korean restaurant owners in the U.S., the study highlighted the discrepancy in perception, knowledge and access to resources in promoting their businesses.
Local news representations of race and homicide in Baton Rouge, Louisiana • Tim Klein, Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication; Quincy Hodges • Prior researchers have found that media portrayals of crime influence the publics’ views on criminality and the criminal justice system. In addition, news coverage of crime often fails to be representative of victims and perpetrators, with most studies finding Whites are oversampled as victims, while Blacks are undersampled. Despite this body of research on news representations of race and crime, there have been no recent studies that focus on racial representations of crime in the southern parts of the U.S., where homicide and incarceration rates tend to be the highest, and the history of racial prejudice has been the most severe. This study begins to fill that void by conducting an interreality comparison of homicide news coverage and homicide statistics in Baton Rouge, the capital city of Louisiana. Findings revealed that among Baton Rouge’s four nightly TV news broadcasts and the state’s largest daily newspaper, the majority of the news stories had White victims (52.11%), though Whites made up only 2.2% of the homicide victims in 2018 in Baton Rouge. This study adds critical empirical data to the broader debate over media portrayals of crime and race.
Separate and (Almost) Equal: Analysis of “It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges” • Vincent Peña, University of Texas at Austin • In September 2019, former ESPN personality Jemele Hill wrote a controversial article for The Atlantic, titled “It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges,” in which she argued for an exodus of black athletes from predominantly white institutions to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). This paper conducts a rhetorical textual analysis of Hill’s article while using a theoretical framework based on Marxian concepts such as ideology and hegemony to examine her article’s implications.
News Presenters and the People Who Lead Them: Examining Diversity of Local Television News Teams • Robert J. Richardson • Research has shown that people of color are underrepresented as members of the media. A majority of local television news directors and station general managers are White, and most of them are men. This study collected race and gender data of 4,317 newscasters from 64 U.S. television markets selected randomly through stratified sampling. It examines relationships between race and gender of management, market size, location, and diversity of on-air staffs.
* Extended Abstract * Left out of the equation: Examining perceptions of racial bias on social media platforms • Kelsey Whipple, University of Texas at Austin; Martin Riedl, University of Texas at Austin; Ryan Wallace, University of Texas at Austin • News coverage of the technology industry regularly identifies racial and gender biases built into online platforms through the stereotypes internalized by their creators. However, public perceptions of these algorithmic and technological biases remain largely unexamined — particularly when it comes to social media platforms. Through a cross-sectional panel survey (N = 1,022) distributed nationally in the United States, this study examines demographic and ideological factors that contribute to perceptions that social media platforms are racially biased.
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