Politicking While Black: News and Social Media Representations of Three Black Female Political Candidates Running for the House of Representatives in the 2018 Midterm Election

Abstract

African American women have been the leading force in political campaigns long before they had the right to vote and hold office. Today, roughly 5% of African American woman hold political positions (CAWP, 2018). However, despite their political participation, there are few studies that examine representation of Black female political candidates in news media. This study employed a content analysis of news reports and three Black female candidates' Twitter campaign accounts to examine how news media represented these three, first-time candidates and to analyze how these candidates represented themselves on Twitter. Based on the overall analysis of a census of newspaper articles and Twitter candidate accounts, the study found that race and gender was not a leading area of news coverage or self-representation in tweets. The research found that these candidates were mostly identified by their former occupations and were not questioned because of who they are, but because of what they do. These findings are significant because it challenges and reshapes gender and race identities.