Jason A. Smith

Research Affiliate, Center for Social Science Research, George Mason University

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About Jason

Smith's research focuses on race and media exclusion. Overarching themes in Smith's writing include issues of access and representation for communities of color.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Why Race Forward Corporate Language Is Not Enough

Key Findings Brief, June 2019

In the News

Opinion: "The AT&T/Time Warner Merger and the Threat to Racial Representation," Jason A. Smith, Sociological Images, November 10, 2016.

Opinion: "Media is Growing More White. What's the FCC Doing About It?," Jason A. Smith, Race Forward, August 11, 2011.

Publications

"MOU or an IOU? Latina/os and the Racialization of Media Policy" (with Randy Abreau). Ethnic and Racial Studies 42, no. 4 (2018): 607-625.

Describes how media mergers undergo a process of racialization to the detriment of Latina/o communities through the policy-making process.

"Learning from a 'Teachable Moment': The Henry Louis Gates Arrest as Media Spectacle and Theorizing Colorblind Racism" in Media and Power in International Contexts: Perspectives on Agency and Identity, edited by Apryl Williams, Ruth Tsuria, and Laura Robinson (Emerald, 2018).

Conducts a case study of local newspapers' coverage of a racialized media spectacle. Finds political ideologies of newspapers reflect colorblind ideologies in distinct ways, with the conservative newspaper highlighting individualistic mechanisms of coverage.

Race and Contention in Twenty-First Century U.S. Media (edited with Bhoomi K. Thakore) (Routledge, 2016).

Describes the media landscape as a space for racial ideologies and practices to persist and be challenged. Offers new evidence to think of the media landscape in more complex ways with regard to race.