The Dynamics of Racialized Media Coverage in Congressional Elections

Research examining press coverage of African-American candidates has put forth conflicting explanations to account for the use of race by the media in campaigns involving black politicians: the media act as racial arbitrators by limiting racial emphases; the media bring race to the forefront of campaigns by highlighting candidate race. In contrast, both phenomenon may occur simultaneously-i.e., media coverage of elections involving African-American candidates suppresses the use of race among the candidates themselves, but accents the race of black candidates and their constituents. Based on a content analysis of newspaper articles occurring during the 1990 and 1992 congressional election cycles, we find support for our racial dualism hypotheses, with the effect particularly strong in competitive biracial elections and in those contests occurring during the 1992 election cycle.