Publications
Below are citations and, where possible, downloadable copies of recent articles published by one or both of the RaceProject team.
McIlwain, Charlton D. & Caliendo, Stephen M. (in press). Black Messages, White Messages: The Differential Use of Racial Appeals by Black & White Candidates. Journal of Black Studies.
download PDF
McIlwain, Charlton D. (2007). Race, Pigskin, and Politics: A Semiotic Analysis of Racial Images in Political Advertising. Semiotica, 167-1/4: 169-192.
download PDF
McIlwain, Charlton D. (2007). Perceptions of Leadership & the Challenge of Obama's Blackness. Journal of Black Studies, 38:64-74. download PDF
McIlwain, Charlton D. (2007). Racial Identity, Ideology and the Youth Vote: Observations From the 2004 Presidential Campaign. American Behavioral Scientist, 50: 1231-1238. download PDF
Caliendo, Stephen M. and McIlwain, Charlton D. (2006). Minority Candidates, Media Framing, and Racial Cues in the 2004 Election. Harvard International Journal of Press Politics, 11: 45-69. download PDF
McIlwain, Charlton D. (in press). The NAACP. In Lynda Lee Kaid and Christina Holtz-Bacha (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Caliendo, Stephen M. & McIlwain, Charlton D. (in press). Minorities' Involvement in Politics. In Lynda Lee Kaid and Christina Holtz-Bacha (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
McIlwain, Charlton D. (in press). Black Politics. In William A. Darity et al. (Eds.) International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Edition. Michigan: MacMillan/Thomson Gale.
McIlwain, Charlton D. & Caliendo, Stephen M. (2005). Political Issues in Black Politics. In Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama (eds.), Encyclopedia of Black Studies. Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Sage Publications. 139-141.
Caliendo, Stephen M. & McIlwain, Charlton D. (2005). Race and Political Advertising. In Samuel J. Best and Benjamin Radcliff (Ed.) Polling America: An Encyclopedia of Public Opinion. Westport, CT: Praeger. 641-646.
Conference Presentations
Below are links to presentations made by the RaceProject team
Black to Reality: Entertainment Television as a Priming Agent for Race-Based Evaluations of Candidates
Given the widespread tendency to avoid direct discourse about race in America (specifically among whites), we seek to better understand whether racial messages that heighten our awareness about race have an effect on voter decision-making. Rather than focusing on messages from news media or political advertising as priming agents, we explore the potential effect of popular culture. Specifically, we provide results of an experimental design where respondents were exposed to candidate advertisements in the context of one of two prime time reality television programs: Black.White. (which focuses on race relations in America) and Fear Factor (specifically, an episode that has no explicit racial content). Embedded candidate ads are drawn from a fictitious bi-racial election (a white candidate versus an African American candidate) and contain one of two types of racial messages from the white candidate: an implicitly racial message or no racial message at all. Due to limited data at the time of presentation, results are overwhelmingly inconclusive. We offer insight into the types of analysis that will be possible when more data is collected, as well as discussion of the gaps in the literature that necessitate such a study.
This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 30 - September 2, 2007, Chicago, Il.
download paper
Racialized Media Framing in Federal Elections, 1990-2006.
Scholars have responded to the increase in racial minority involvement in federal elections by examining the types and extent of racial messages in campaign communication. Others have focused on third-party messages, particularly those found in the mass media. Building off and improving on the work of earlier cross-sectional studies, this paper features a comprehensive analysis of all federal election contests between 1992 and 2006 where at least one candidate in the general election was either a racial minority. We pay particular attention to the relationship between the level of racial framing and the focus (or lack thereof) on public policy issues, as well as the comparison between biracial and uniracial contests. Finding suggest that racial references are more common in stories about contests that feature a racial minority candidate, but such references do not necessarily constitute a “racial frame.” Further, references to race do not preclude discussion of substantive policy issues.
This paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 12 – 15, 2007, Chicago, IL.
download paper
The Effects of Racial Messages in Televised Campaign Advertising: A Multi-Contextual Experimental Study.
The extant literature in the areas of race, campaign communication and voting behavior has left unaddressed a number of issues that we explore in this paper. Previous studies have focused almost solely on the perceptions of black candidates by white voters; we are interested in understanding how racial cues in political advertising affect voter voters’ (both black and white) evaluations of candidates of either race. This paper presents the results of a 2 (race of candidates: black vs. white, black vs. black) X 3 (racial messages: implicit racial message vs. no racial message vs. explicit racial message) independent groups stimulus-posttest experimental design pilot study wherein participants are exposed to campaign advertisements that were carefully crafted and produced specifically for this project. We test the effects of racial messages on vote choice and candidate evaluation in both biracial (African American v. white) and all-black contests, controlling for a number of theoretically- grounded independent variables. Results highlight the way information processing of ads with racial content affects the evaluation of candidates in multiple election contexts, as well as the degree to which such messages are effective in priming preexisting racial attitudes. In short, what we know about how racial messages affect white voters differs from the reality of the way racial messages work in the context of black voters where both candidates in the election are also black.
Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April, 2007, Chicago, IL.
download paper
Shades of Black and Brown: Minority Congressional Candidates and Their Opponents in Multiple Contexts
This paper contributes to studies concerned with how the news media cover and frame elections involving minority candidates. We seek to ascertain the veracity of previously-drawn conclusions that show that the media disproportionately makes race a central reference point in bi-racial elections. This paper presents the conclusions of a content analysis study of national and local newspaper coverage of nine election contests from the 2004 cycle, including five U.S. Senate contests and four U.S. House contests. These contests reflect various forms of racial diversity of the candidates involved and the majority voting population. Our analysis focuses on several factors that we hypothesize significantly contribute to various forms of racial reference (some of which have not been a part of similar studies) including: the racial composition of the candidates (bi-racial including white, black and Hispanic/Latino candidates, as well as contests with two black candidates); the racial composition of voters; and the competitiveness of the race. We are also interested in whether the form of coverage differs significantly between bi-racial election contests involving African American candidates and those involving Latino candidates, as well as coverage of contests where both candidates are African American.
This paper was presented at the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association, September 1-4, 2005, Washington, DC.
download paper
Who's Really Black? A Theory of African American Authentic Appeals
This paper advances a theory of African American Authentic Appeals, which attempts to explain various dimensions surrounding the need for, uses and potential effects of appeals made in election contests where both candidates are black, as well as the majority of the voting population. The theory outlines: 1) the necessary and sufficient conditions under which appeals to black authenticity are used (when can we predict they will be employed by candidates?) 2) the ways such appeals are constituted in common forms of campaign communication (how do we know them when we seem them?) 3) the psychological attitudes that are primed to give such appeals their weight (what about blacks' psychology makes such an appeal potentially effective?) and 4) the factors that determine the effect of such appeals (under what conditions will they succeed or fail?).
This paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 7-10, 2005, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois.
download paper
Frames of Authenticity: News Coverage of Black Candidates and Their Campaigns
This paper examines local print coverage of congressional contests form 2002 in which at least one candidate is a racial minority. Grounded in the framing media effects literature, this study reveals the way the media address racial components in these campaigns. We offer a descriptive qualitative analysis of media coverage in these contests in order to flesh out our theory of African American authentic appeals.
This paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 15-18, 2004, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois.
download paper
Reading Race: An Experimental Study of The Effect of Political Advertisement's Racial Tone on Candidate Perception and Vote Choice
This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to test the effect of various forms of racial messages in televised campaign advertisements. Building from Mendelberg's (2001) theory of implicit racial messages, we exposed groups of respondents to implicit and explicit messages from a contest in which one candidate was white and the other was African American. Results confirm Mendelberg's earlier findings, and move forward our extension of her theory to include both "racial" and "racist" political messages.
This paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 3-6, 2003, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois
download paper
"How Do I Look?" An Analysis of Television Advertisements for Black Candidates and Their Opponents, 1952-2000 (Pilot Study, 1992-2000 Senate races included)
This paper reports the results of a content analysis study of 212 political advertisements run by candidates in U.S. Senate contests between 1990 -2000. The election contests from which the ads were drawn were general election contests where at least one of the candidates was African American. We set out to demonstrate the degree to which implicit and/or explicit racial messages are communicated either candidates' advertisements and the common features of ads that convey such messages. Most significantly we found that black and white candidates rely on racial appeals with relative equal frequency. The paper provides descriptive analysis of the qualitative differences between racial/racist appeals used by black and white candidates.
This paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 25-28, 2002, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois. It has been modified.
download paper
Works in Progress
Race Appeal
We are completing work on the first book-length manuscript to emerge from the RaceProject.
Minority Candidate List
We are nearing completion on a compilation of a list of all candidates (and their race) who ran in federal-level general elections since 1965. When completed, the list will be made available to all scholars who wish to use it. Along with candidate names, it will also include relevant election data for each contest including vote totals, demographic makeup of district, etc.
Media Archive
We are in the process of constructing a media archive that will include a searchable database of political ads used by or in election contests featuring minority candidates for federal and statewide offices since 1952.
Bibliography
Below is a working bibliography relevant to the Race Project. If you have suggestions for additions, please email them to smcaliendo@noctrl.edu. We appreciate your help.
link to .pdf of bibliography
