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An analysis of local and national coverage of Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign and Black descriptive representation
Sullivan, P. E. (2020). “A Black daughter of the South”: An analysis of local and national coverage of Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign and Black descriptive representation. Pi Sigma Alpha, XX(2), 49-59. https://pisigmaalpha.org/past-journal-issues/#pdf-fall-2020/49/
In 2018, Stacey Abrams, the Minority Leader in the Georgia State House of Representatives, campaigned to be the governor of Georgia. The campaign garnered national attention as Abrams, the first Black woman to be a major party’s nominee for governor in the country, excited Democratic hopes of turning Georgia blue (Bacon 2018). Between the start of 2017 and the beginning of 2019, the Atlanta Journal Constitution published 611 articles that mentioned Abrams, and the New York Times published 285 stories related to her candidacy. This paper explores the differences in the local and national portrayal of Abrams’ campaign and how the coverage reflected media trends in the presentation of women of color, specifically female candidates of color. The research finds that the national coverage of Abrams both mentioned and focused on Abrams’ identity as a Black woman to a greater extent than the local coverage. Additionally, the paper shows that neither local or national coverage used stereotypical framing common in the coverage of women and people of color in politics.