Strategic Elites, the Press, and Race Relations

In public discourse about race relations, social and political actors interact with the press with the goal of shaping the picture of social reality accepted by policymakers and citizens. In a departure from research focusing on how elites shape news coverage, this research examines what policymakers do—in a strategic sense—with discourse about race in news media. Evidence linking press content or journalists' comments about race with advocacy by elites of certain legislative policies would be suggestive of how mass communication has been “used” in public discussion about race relations. With this in mind, this research examines 2 important congressional debates about race relations during a critical era in U.S. history.