#politicalcommunicationsowhite: Race and Politics in Nine Communication Journals, 1991-2021

Abstract

ABSTRACT Race has been a consequential factor in politics for centuries, yet our review of the political communication literature finds only sporadic interest in the topic. To examine systematically how and how much political communication research has addressed race, we analyze author-supplied keywords in nine journals within three broad categories (political communication, generalist communication, and critical communication) over 31 years. Combining computational methods and traditional content analysis, we find that political communication and generalist journals engaged with race substantially less than critical journals, and that this level of engagement has remained essentially flat since the mid-1990s. Political communication journals discussed racism least among the three journal types, and specific political communication theories appeared rarely across the board. Finally, addressing race did not predict journal impact factor.