Date of Award

2015

Degree Name

Communication Studies

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Stephen Underhill

Second Advisor

Jill C. Underhill

Third Advisor

Edward Woods

Fourth Advisor

Christopher Swindell

Abstract

When a former black editor says he was told that blacks do not care about news by his white boss and a black deejay is told that his commentary is too hard hitting and not to go to an event featuring a black militant leader by his white boss, these personal accounts could be extrapolated to mean that there may still be a world filled with white privilege and an ensuing hegemonic bifurcation in a Communication Studies context. This study utilizes Afrocentricity and the agency that is denied to these two individuals to provide insight into a world where these black media/newsroom personnel describe how they lost ground to their white media owners. Those interviewed said this world does not promote the agency that comes with Afrocentricity, which is utilized as a critical cultural studies lens to interpret these 18-question qualitative interviews. The environment that those interviewed described is a world not often viewed in the context of white media ownership and the black-focused content that is produced within them, but is a phenomenon which may be better understood by utilizing an Afrocentric lens in a Communication Studies context.

Subject(s)

Mass media.

African Americans - Social conditions.

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