Signaling Blackness
Understanding Industrialized Constructions of African American Radio Audiences in the Obama Era
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21835334 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gretta Blackwell (0000-0002-8521-4598, Prairie View A&M University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 77-97 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Radio & Audio Media (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1937-6529 • E-ISSN: 1937-6537 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/19376529.2024.2311377 |
| OpenAlex | W4400206368 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 30 |
This study considers how the Black radio industry imagined and addressed its African American audiences in the Obama era. Through an examination of the use of sound on air, interviews with station executives, and industry publications, I argue executives used three constructed lifestyles—the culture of affluence, the culture of the mic, and the culture of grace—to segment their audiences. Industry efforts to construct audiences along class/status lines produced a bifurcated understanding of Blackness as either sophisticated or street. With this binary driving industry logic, Black radio unproductively promoted narrow constructions of Blackness in the public sphere
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |