Stephen M. Caliendo

Minority Candidates, Media Framing, and Racial Cues in the 2004 Election

Rooted in political communication models of framing and priming and a rather unique theory of appeals to racial authenticity, the authors examine minority candidates in both majority-minority and majority-white districts during the 2004 election cycle.They explore and analyze potential framing and priming effects based on variations of candidates’ media coverage in a number of campaign scenarios. Results suggest that racial references are commonplace in biracial election contests (and are more likely to occur there than in all-white contests). Furthermore, newspaper coverage of biracial and all-black elections is more likely to contain a racial frame than stories about all-white races. The authors conclude with a discussion of the normative implications of these findings, as well as suggestions for further examination and testing.

Black Messages, White Messages The Differential Use of Racial Appeals by Black and White Candidates

This article seeks to ascertain how implicit and explicit racial messages are constructed in televised political campaign advertisements. Utilizing a content analysis of 328 spots run in election contests between 1990 and 2000 where at least one candidate was African American, the authors provide results and analyses that demonstrate that both White and Black candidates are prone to utilizing racial messages. However, the authors show that a stark distinction exists between racial messages constructed by Whites and those by Black candidates.

Mitt Romney’s Racist Appeals How Race Was Played in the 2012 Presidential Election

This article identifies a marked difference in the type of race-based appeals that dominated Barack Obama’s presidential reelection contest in 2012 from his inaugural campaign in 2008. Racist appeals by Mitt Romney and the right in 2012 supplanted the racial appeals by Obama and the left in 2008. We focus our attention on a particularly salient form of racist appeal, one based on the long-standing stereotypes of black laziness and taking advantage. Specifically, we outline the historical underpinnings of these stereotypes. We then demonstrate how Romney and the right wove these underlying stereotypes into a seamless racist narrative—through political advertisements, online messaging, political speeches and debate statements—beginning with the Republican primary and continuing through the general election.

Using Twitter to Increase Political Interest in Undergraduate Students.

ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of using Twitter in the classroom on student political efficacy, interest, and engagement. Millennials use the virtual world to build social relationships and to obtain information. By envisioning the virtual world as a means to increase civic engagement, political science instructors can use technology to draw upon social networking, iterated interaction, and information sharing. Because taking political science and civics courses can boost civic engagement, students who are drawn to political science courses are more likely to already be interested in politics and have an increased knowledge. Therefore, what we demonstrate is that, while Twitter in and of itself does not independently foster civic engagement, employing it as a pedagogical tool taps into and strengthens the predispositions of students in political science classes, namely political interest and efficacy. Our results contribute to a fresh and much needed discussion in political science literature about ways to increase civic engagement of Millennials.

Social Networking as a Pedagogical Tool: Effect of Twitter Use on Interest and Efficacy in Introductory-Level American Government Courses

According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), “Youth political engagement requires attention. Forty-five percent of young people age 18–29 voted in 2012, down from 51% in 2008.” (2015). While the lack of civic engagement, efficacy, and political knowledge of young people is not a newly discovered trend, there is a renewed call by groups outside of political science, such as CIRCLE, as well as inside political science, such as the American Political Science Association, to do something about it. The Millennial generation may not socialize in bowling leagues (Putnam 1995), but Millennials do build connections and gain knowledge through the relationships they create in the virtual world. If those of us who teach political science courses accept a broadened definition of social capital, it is beneficial to incorporate technology into the classroom that helps students build that capital in a virtual world.