Inequities of race, place, and gender among the communication citation elite, 2000–2019

Abstract

A recent wave of studies has focused on the identities of communication scholars, quantifying the degree to which Whites, men, and Americans dominate the discipline.This study analyzes the communication citation elite (CCE)—a group of 1,675 highly cited scholars in communication research—in terms of race, gender, and country of employment over 20 years. Applying computational methods and content analysis, we find that 91.5% of first-author CCE members are White, 74.3% are men, and 78.6% work in the United States. Longitudinal analyses of each identity category reveal only minor shifts, most prominently slight gains for women and non-U.S. scholars. White representation among first authors decreased less than 4 percentage points over the study period (from 95.1% to 91.2%), with Black representation ending lower than it began (0.61% to 0.54%). Data from the International Communication Association indicate that the CCE is substantially more American and male than the organization’s full membership as of 2021.

The Inaugural Deutschmann Essays: Successful Senior Scholars Share Ideas About Journalism and Media Research

“…Such trends align with recent studies analyzing inequities of race, place, and gender. Freelon et al (2023) analyzed the communication citation elite (CCE)-a group of 1,675 highly cited scholars in communication research-by race, gender, and country of employment more than 20 years. They found that 91.5% of first-author CCE members are White, 74.3% are men, and 78.6% work in the United States (Freelon et al, 2023).…”

“…Freelon et al (2023) analyzed the communication citation elite (CCE)-a group of 1,675 highly cited scholars in communication research-by race, gender, and country of employment more than 20 years. They found that 91.5% of first-author CCE members are White, 74.3% are men, and 78.6% work in the United States (Freelon et al, 2023). The dominance of White men resulted from the dominance of the scholarly field by White men, which, in turn, reflect the social norms of the time.…”

Develando las razones del diálogo asimétrico: Explorando la exclusión en el campo de la comunicación

“…Por décadas, el campo de la comunicación ha sido cuestionado por mantener procesos de exclusión que han limitado su riqueza y pluralidad. Una amplia investigación sistemática confirma que estos procesos de exclusión se verifican en temas tales como la discriminación racial (Chakravartty et al, 2018;Freelon et al, 2023), de género (Wang et al, 2021;Knobloch-Westerwick & Glynn, 2013), de patrones de citación (Demeter, 2018;Salvador-Mata et al, 2023), de abordajes metodológicos (Walter et al, 2018), epistemológicos (Bryant & Miron, 2004), geográficos (Albuquerque, 2020) e inclusive lingüísticos (Waisbord, 2016). De manera particular, la variada y rica discusión del campo que ha tenido lugar en América Latina ha sido parte de este proceso de exclusión y marginalización.…”

“…Cada vez más se observan esfuerzos por denunciar estos procesos de exclusión y marginalización (Freelon et al, 2023;Salvador-Mata et al, 2023), y también de visibilizar las voces excluidas y poner en la agenda académica esas "otras narrativas" que han ofrecido caminos renovados para reflexionar sobre el campo (Simonson et al, 2022). En este sentido, cabe destacar la publicación de Oliveira Paulino et al (2020), que pone en conversación a investigadores latinoamericanos adscritos a AlAIc con sus homólogos europeos de ecreA (European Communication Research Association), para juntos propiciar una reflexión más holística del campo de la comunicación.…”

Black representation in social media well-being research: A scoping review of social media experience and psychological well-being among Black users in the United States

“…Crucially, scholarship on racialized groups, their use of digital media, and its impact on online communities heightens efforts to validate individuals that are historically left out of academic discussion (Freelon et al, 2023). Black Americans are uniquely situated in a position that faces systematic barriers against them, as they are overrepresented in the prison population, homeless population, and children in the foster care system.…”