Premium
Grown folks radio: U.S. election politics and a “hidden” black counterpublic
Author(s) -
LEONARDO MICAELA DI
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01386.x
Subject(s) - politics , presidential campaign , political science , presidential election , media studies , deregulation , presidential system , political economy , sociology , advertising , law , economics , business , market economy
President Obama's 2008 electoral triumph garnered enormous journalistic and scholarly attention, but analysts have shown very little interest in African American media coverage of the campaign. In this piece, I focus on one major, nearly ignored, black media outlet: a syndicated radio show with a huge audience, commercial success, and progressive politics. I analyze the show's construction of a powerful mediatized black counterpublic, consider its rise parallel to the neoliberal deregulation of U.S. media, and narrate its coverage of the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. I also consider the political effects of a new cross‐media platform synergy among black and progressive outlets.