Trump Goes to Tulsa on Juneteenth: Placing the Study of Identity, Social Groups, and Power at the Center of Political Communication Research

ABSTRACT

The increase in elites’ use of racial appeals has compelled some scholars of political communication to tell a more comprehensive story about political identity in the United States and elsewhere around the world . This occurred alongside the field of communication’s , and subfield of political communication’s , longstanding failures to develop a racial analytic – a clear reflection of the field’s overwhelming whiteness. In this forum essay, we contextualize and review some strains of new literature on identity in political communication, with a focus especially on the U.S. context and the intersection of race and political power. Our aim is to call attention to what we see as an emerging approach to centering power, identity, and social groups in the field. These works are diverse theoretically and methodologically, and their authors may or may not recognize themselves as doing work in political communication at all. But we see tremendous value in what they share analytically, substantively, and normatively, and aim to mark the emergence and – we hope – flourishing of this work.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity
• power
• racial appeals
• political identity ownership
• political communication

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Heesoo Jang for her assistance on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Drs. Daniel Kreiss and Shannon McGregor’s research is supported by the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life, and its philanthropic supporters, including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Siegel Family Endowment, Luminate, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Daniel Kreiss

Daniel Kreiss is the Edgar Thomas Cato Distinguished Professor in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media and a Principal Investigator with the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Regina G. Lawrence

Regina G. Lawrence is Associate Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication in Portland and Research Director for the Agora Journalism Center.

Shannon C. McGregor

Shannon C. McGregor is an associate professor in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media and a Principal Investigator with the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.