Big Data and Political Communication: A Partnership to Study Racialized Media Coverage in the 2018 Midterm Elections

Abstract

Partnering with a data science organization, we set out to examine the ways that local media covered candidates of color in the 2018 midterm elections. This presentation elaborates on the details of the partnership, including discussion of the myriad issues that needed to be considered in collecting such a wide-ranging and large set of data. We offer preliminary results of the way that racial stereotypes were present in the coverage of candidates of color as compared to white candidates. Additionally, we reflect on how large datasets like the one we rely on for this study help to yield greater insights about these issues compared to more traditional studies limited to smaller sample data.

Keywords: elections, campaigns, race, ethnicity, politics, government, political communication