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Chapter 1 focuses on representations of African Americans in film, print, and broadcast media. It introduces the concepts of media framing, stereotypes, and hegemony as they relate to race and mass media studies. The chapter also introduces antebellum portrayals of African Americans, which are explored in greater depth in subsequent chapters.

Building on our examination of historical portrayals of African Americans as a whole, Chapter 2 explores stereotypes of African-American males in particular. The chapter’s case study provides an in-depth exploration of mass media portrayals of President Barack Obama throughout his first four years as the first Black president of the United States.

Chapter 4 focuses on images of African Americans in advertising, PR, and social media. Because many of the stereotypes, cultural narratives, and frames that exist today originated in historical advertisements of products and services, we begin with an in-depth analysis of antebellum racial and ethnic advertisements in mass media. Starting with the 1800s, we trace the evolution of longstanding racial stereotypes, which provides context for the subsequent chapters of our text. Topics include how and why African Americans have been depicted as they have in advertisements, PR, and social media. The chapter presents implications for self-presentation in new media platforms. A case study on President Barack Obama’s early social media presence concludes this chapter.

Chapter 6 explores similar concepts introduced in the earlier chapters; however, it applies them to new media formats such as social media, websites, and online videos. In the tradition of McLuhan and Fiore’s the “medium is the message” (1967), communication via social media challenges traditional communication theories. As such, framing and gatekeeper roles of media outlets have changed tremendously. To explore changing audience and gatekeeper dynamics, a case study in this section assesses modern representations in social media through an analysis of Facebook hate pages targeting the Obamas.

Chapter 3 introduces feminist theory and explores traditional media frames and stereotypes of women. After addressing media coverage of women in general, the chapter turns to portrayals of Black women in particular through the lens of Black Feminist theory. Stereotypes of this segment of women offer a rich source of content to analyze. Demonstrating how stereotypes have an impact on media coverage of various issues, many journalists used the angry Black woman archetype in their narratives of Michelle Obama during the 2007–2008 presidential primaries, which is the focus of this chapter’s case study.