Media, Soft Power, and African American Political Views
This paper investigates whether media has altered the way African Americans view politics, arguing that both right-leaning and left-leaning outlets—along with social media voices—continuously attempt to shape this demographic's political perspectives. Drawing on the concept of soft power, the CNN effect as defined by Robinson (2002), and examples from CNN, Fox News, Twitter, and YouTube, the paper traces how mainstream and independent media craft narratives targeting African American voters. It also examines the 2016 presidential election as a case study in media influence and its limits, concluding that while media is a powerful force, African Americans—like all citizens—weigh external messages against personal experience, community, and other social factors.
- Introduction: Research question on media and Black political views
- Soft Power and the Media: How media uses subtle influence to shape narratives
- Popular Media and the African American Audience: CNN, Fox News, social media, and the 2016 election
- The CNN Effect: Narrative control and its limits in domestic politics
- Conclusion: Media shapes views but is not the only factor
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its argument in clearly defined theoretical frameworks—soft power and the CNN effect—and applies them consistently to concrete, current examples throughout.
- It maintains analytical balance by examining both right-leaning and left-leaning media, avoiding a one-sided critique and acknowledging that narrative manipulation occurs across the political spectrum.
- The use of specific, well-known media incidents (Maxine Waters coverage, Kanye West's tweets, Diamond and Silk's YouTube presence) gives the argument immediacy and credibility.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective integration of secondary sources to support a media-analysis argument. Rather than simply summarizing Seib (2009), Dreier (1982), or Robinson (2002), the author uses each source as a conceptual lens applied to specific contemporary examples, showing how established theory explains current events.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a clear research question and thesis, then builds its case across three analytical sections: soft power (theoretical grounding), popular media (empirical examples including the 2016 election), and the CNN effect (broader implications). The conclusion returns to the original question and offers a measured, nuanced answer. This classic funnel-and-return structure makes the argument easy to follow and satisfying to close.
Introduction
Media plays a powerful role in politics in a variety of ways. Social media allows individuals to communicate ideas to followers. President Trump used social media—particularly Twitter—to great effect on the campaign trail, often firing off tweets to attack his political opponents. Supporters and critics alike have used social media to alter the way people view politics. One group that has received a great deal of media focus is the African American population. The African American vote is a very important factor in politics because this population has the potential to swing an election, to turn a blue state red or a red state blue.
The media, however, is only as powerful as those who wield it. Whether it is CNN, Fox News, or Twitter users, the aim is always the same: to alter the views of the target audience and sway them to embrace the message being delivered. The research question this paper asks is: Has the media altered the way African Americans view politics? The answer it proposes is that the media is always attempting to alter the way African Americans view politics, from both the right and the left. CNN, for example, will run stories about how Republicans do not care about Black Americans. Fox News, on the other hand, will run stories about how Trump has put African Americans back to work in increasing numbers. Kanye West will tweet about his support for President Trump while wearing a red MAGA hat.
In short, the media is a powerful tool that is constantly being used to alter the way in which African Americans view and feel about politics. This paper examines how that is done by looking at the concept of soft power, at what both right and left ends of the media spectrum are doing, at popular media, and particularly at what Robinson (2002) calls the "CNN effect"—the use of images and stories of human suffering typically used to garner support for humanitarian interventions abroad, but also useful for rousing antipathy against political opponents at home.
References
Bandura, A. (2018). Toward a psychology of human agency: Pathways and reflections. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(2), 130–136.
Brewer, J. (2016). Why Hillary Clinton couldn't rally the black vote. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/11/why-hillary-clinton-couldnt-rally-the-black-vote-commentary.html
Cummings, W. (2018). Trump at 36 percent approval among African-Americans, new poll finds. Retrieved from
DellaVigna, S., & Kaplan, E. (2007). The Fox News effect: Media bias and voting. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3), 1187–1234.
Dreier, P. (1982). The position of the press in the US power structure. Social Problems, 29(3), 298–310.
Dyson, M. E. (2016). The Black presidency: Barack Obama and the politics of race in America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Erlich, J. (2018). Maxine Waters encourages supporters to harass Trump administration officials. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/25/politics/maxine-waters-trump-officials/index.html
Flood, B. (2018). Maxine Waters wins media award, uses speech to bad-mouth Trump to newspaper publishers: 'I don't like him'. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/maxine-waters-wins-media-award-uses-speech-to-bad-mouth-trump-to-newspaper-publishers-i-dont-like-him
Fox News. (2018). Diamond and Silk. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6deuXRjLl2s
Jackson, A. P., Davis, D., & Alston, J. K. (2017). Remotivating the Black vote: The effect of low-quality information on Black voters in the 2016 presidential election and how librarians can intervene. The Library Quarterly, 87(3), 236–242.
Kurtzleben, D. (2016). Understanding the Clintons' popularity with Black voters. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2016/03/01/468185698/understanding-the-clintons-popularity-with-black-voters
Robinson, P. (2002). The CNN effect. Routledge.
Seib, P. (2009). Public diplomacy and journalism. American Behavioral Scientist, 52(5), 772–786.
Squires, C. (2009). African Americans and the media. Polity.
Tesler, M. (2018). No, one-third of African Americans don't support Trump. Not even close. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/08/17/no-one-third-of-african-americans-dont-support-trump-not-even-close/
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.