Email Address: jmfort@ucsd.edu
Within the field of Communication, I am interested in focusing on the inefficiency of political communication for peoples who have traumatic historical experiences with government led policies. By studying race and governmental relations through a lens of collective trauma, I expect to gain insight into the historical and psychological groundings that motivate the distrust between America and its minorities.
The Census communication campaign is of great interest to me because of the explicit interest in the participation of minorities and the counterintuitive targeting attempts to achieve such participation. Numerous reports discuss the intense reservations American minorities hold against the American government due to negative historical experiences. Understanding this existence of historical and collective trauma, and the Census’ need for minority participation, the print and radio ads produced during the 2010 Census do not effectively address the issue of distrust in a way that encourages minority participation.
I hope to focus my research on the aspects of communication and culture that appeal to minorities in a way that acknowledges the history of race in America and compose a comprehensive communication tactic that does not superficially acknowledge ethnic difference, but is shaped by it.