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ORCID
N/A
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Communication
Degree Type
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Year Degree Awarded
2014
Month Degree Awarded
September
Abstract
This study explores how participants respond to news coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting based on their colorblind racial attitudes. The purpose of this study is to understand how people’s beliefs about the salience of race and racism, as well as how framing within news coverage, contributes to how people privately respond to racial events and their willingness to publicly express their views in discussions. Participants answered questions about their racial ideology, their views about the role of race in the Trayvon Martin shooting, and whether or not they were willing to express these views in a discussion after reading articles that either promotes an overtly colorblind view of the Trayvon Martin case, a race conscious view of the case, or only states the facts of the case (for the control condition). It was found that there were racial differences in how participants viewed the role of race in the Trayvon Martin shooting, even when controlling for racial ideology, and that beliefs in colorblind ideology impacted views of the Trayvon Martin case and willingness to discuss it, with participants with race conscious views that were shown an article that presented the case from a colorblind perspective reporting being less willing to discuss their views on the case compared to those shown an article that presented the case from a race conscious perspective.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/5610457
First Advisor
Erica Scharrer
Recommended Citation
Lawrence, Stephanie, "The Effect of Colorblind Racial Ideology on Discussion of Racial Events: An Examination of Responses to the News Coverage of the Trayvon Martin Shooting" (2014). Masters Theses. 93.
https://doi.org/10.7275/5610457
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/93
Included in
Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, Social Psychology Commons