The Obamas and Mass Media: Race, Gender, Religion, and Politics

By Mia Moody-Ramirez and Jannette Dates

Using the cultural prism of race, this book critically examines the image of African Americans in media of the twenty-first century. Further, the authors assess the ways in which media focused on gender, religion, and politics in framing perceptions of the President and First Lady of the United States during the Obama administration.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Release date: Nov 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781137404930

Book preview

The Obamas and Mass Media: Race, Gender, Religion, and Politics

Mia Moody-Ramirez

Baylor University, USA

and

Jannette L. Dates

Howard University, USA

THE OBAMAS AND MASS MEDIA

Copyright © Mia Moody-Ramirez and Jannette L. Dates, 2014.

All rights reserved.

First published in 2014 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®

in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN: 978–1–137–40493–0 EPUB

ISBN: 978–1–137–40493–0 PDF

ISBN: 978–1–137–40492–3 Hardback

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.

A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

First edition: 2014

www.palgrave.com/pivot

DOI: 10.1057/9781137404930

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Film, Print, and Broadcast Representations of African Americans

2 Historical Stereotypes of Black Men

3 A Feminist Reading of Mass Media

4 Images of African Americans in Advertising, PR, and Social Media

5 Network News

6 New Media Systems

7 Conclusions

References

Index

List of Illustrations

Figure

Tables

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank my husband, Augustine Ramirez, and my entire family for being supportive in my research and education endeavors. I would especially like to thank my mother, Nelda Moody, who has always gone beyond the call of duty in helping me reach my goals. I would also like to thank former research assistants who contributed to this massive research project, including Prisca Ansaloum, Jessica Foumena, Aleana Peoples, Aisha Tariq, Chelsea Quackenbush, and Courtney Webb. I am also grateful to Baylor University for the sabbatical leave during which much of this research was conducted. Finally yet importantly, I thank God for giving me the strength to carry on.

Mia Moody-Ramirez

I also wish to thank my family members who have endured my endless hours at the computer and on the telephone. I particularly thank my husband, Victor Dates, who has tirelessly supported my professional growth even as we worked together with our family.

Jannette L. Dates

Introduction

Moody-Ramirez, Mia and Dates, Jannette L. The Obamas and Mass Media: Race, Gender, Religion, and Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. DOI: 10.1057/9781137404930.

As noted by other scholars, in the early 20th century, W.E.B. Dubois and Sterling Brown, and their contemporaries, such as Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Weldon Johnson, made fundamental assertions that were grounded in a humanistic vision rooted in the democratic principles found in the U.S. Constitution. Using the context of the principles in the Constitution, these literary giants established race as the primary theoretical framework for how they perceived and how they believed they were being perceived by the world.

Our work follows the intellectual lead of these groundbreakers in U.S. literature, by using the cultural prism of race to critically examine the images of African Americans that exist in media of the 21st century. Further, we critically assess the ways in which media focused on gender, religion, and politics in framing perceptions of the President and First Lady of the United States during the Obama administration that began in 2008.

Are today’s media portrayals of African Americans more accurate than in the past? This question is particularly relevant in this age, often dubbed Postracial—to signify an era in which U.S. citizens elected their first Black/mixed-race president. Some critics argue that President Barack Obama’s election is evidence of a Postracial America, while others believe that events following his election have exposed the degree to which racism is still prevalent (Ono, 2009). Even with this disagreement, the historical significance of the United States having its first Black President provides an invaluable opportunity for scholars to explore the realities of race in America.

The Obamas and Mass Media: Race, Gender, Religion, and Politics is an exploration of modern-day representations of African Americans in the mass media with a focus on gender issues, politics, and religion, viewed through the prism of race and as these social constructs relate to the Obamas. This book provides readers with extensive research as well as aspects of the history behind mass media stereotypes, frames, and narratives about African Americans. Further, with a focus on the Obamas, our study assesses modern representations of African Americans in print, network news, social media, and other platforms.

The Obamas and Mass Media: Race, Gender, Religion, and Politics is a continuation of the vision that Jannette L. Dates and William Barlow gave birth to more than a decade ago with the publication of Split Image: African Americans in the Mass Media (Dates & Barlow, 1993). Split Image provided a balanced, historical view of African Americans’ contributions to media and addressed how the dominant European culture in U.S. media established images and structures that impeded the development and recognition of the subordinated African-American culture. In that same vein, as noted, The Obamas and Mass Media: Race, Gender, Religion, and Politics comparatively explores a range of topics, with an emphasis on President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Throughout history, cultural studies theorists from around the world have observed societies and developed theories to explain the observed phenomena. U.S. cultural critics have borrowed ideas from many of these important thinkers. The theories that are most often used to help explain U.S. media include ideas from Italy’s Antonio Gramsci, the U.K.’s Stuart Hall, and Canada’s Marshall McLuhan, as well as our own Noam Chomsky and Clifford Geertz.

In the following pages, we argue that the dominant trends in African-American imagery in U.S. media were created and nurtured by succeeding generations of White image-makers, beginning back as far as the colonial era. Here, we continue to develop the case originally made in Split Image (1993) that the definition and control of Black images in the media have been contested along racial lines, with White cultural domination provoking African-American cultural resistance. This theoretical framework is drawn from the Gramscian concept of ideological hegemony. Gramsci argued that ruling classes maintain their power by cultivating a consensus among subordinate classes. At the same time, however, he argued that there is constant struggle between the ruling class and the subordinated class because of the cultural resistance that naturally emerges (Gramsci, 1971).

Studying media content helps scholars understand how race, gender, religion, and politics figure into the cultural landscape. Such texts are important because media influence the construction of the racialized condition in which we live. It is often through media images that people negotiate identities, ideas, and relationships with other people (e.g., Hall, 1997; Enriques, 2001; Ono, 2009). Furthermore, media analyses built upon historical theories are important in any media environment because mass communication sends viewers, readers, and listeners’ hidden messages that suggest a story’s importance. Media ultimately suggest people’s value and their place in a hierarchy within social structures.

The artifacts

The Obamas and Mass Media: Race, Gender, Religion, and Politics offers a comprehensive, multicultural approach to the study of mass media. The book defines key terms, discusses how race, religion, politics, and gender are interrelated, and provides a comprehensive synthesis of relevant literature on these topics. Reflecting various ideologies during the Age of Obama, this text is accented by thought-provoking case studies that provide insight into how longstanding frames and stereotypes play out in modern media artifacts including broadcast transcripts, websites, print media, and social media.

Many books have explored the Obamas from various standpoints, illustrating the value of this text. In general, similar books fall into one of three categories: biographical, media studies, and pictorial. For example, The Obamas: Portrait of America’s New First Family (Essence Magazine Editors, 2009) includes images of the 44th President’s inauguration and first term. The pictorial includes essays from writers such as Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Gwen Ifill, and Isabel Wilkerson, who argue that the first Black President of the United States has irrevocably changed this country. Mirroring some of the same content, Obama: The Historic Journey (Abramson & Keller, 2009) is a large-format volume that showcases both the Obama campaign and the New York Times’ own staff’s expertise on the subject. Contributions by Times writers and editors document Obama’s journey from the beginning of his career through to his inauguration as President of the United States in 2008.

Similarly, Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book (Hume, 2009) documents via photographs the President’s inaugural week, from his Whistle Stop train ride to Washington DC to his first few days in the Oval Office. It includes the work of former White House photographers, David Hume Kennerly and Robert McNeely, who led a team of photojournalists in capturing this historic celebration.

Biographical works include Barack Obama: The Story (Maraniss, 2013), a generational biography that begins with Obama’s childhood and continues through his adulthood. The author includes content from hundreds of interviews, letters, journals, and diaries. Focusing on life after the election, The Obamas (Kantor, 2012) details the everyday lives of the President and First Lady as they navigate their new roles as leaders of the United States. The book includes insight into the couple’s partnership and personalities.

Media analyses of the Obamas include The Iconic Obama, 2007–2009: Essays on Media Representations of the Candidate and New President (Yanes & Carter, 2012). In this text, the authors and other contributors explore how President Barack Obama is represented in popular culture from the 2008 presidential primaries through his first year in office. The authors assert that Obama’s election offers a lens through which one can examine politics, art, comics, and music in various contexts. From a conservative perspective, Goldberg (2009) takes on what he calls the liberal media for overwhelmingly supporting Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election campaign in his book titled, A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media. Goldberg includes statistics and personal musings to support his contentions that mainstream media have a profound liberal bias in its treatment of President Obama.

While these books hold tremendous value and offer a foundation for research on the Obamas, they do not provide a media analysis of the couple through the prism of race. To fill this void, The Obamas and Mass Media: Race, Gender, Religion, and Politics offers reflections on how historical mass media portrayals of African Americans are perpetuated in the 21st century and how America’s first Black President and his wife are positioned within those frames. As new media reflect an adjustment to more interactions by consumers, it