Website: www.spcomm.uiuc.edu/tldixon/
Education: Ph.D.,
University of California-Santa Barbara
Research Interests:
Social and Psychological Effects of the Mass Media, Effects of Mass Media
Stereotyping on Viewers, Racial Representations in the Mass Media, Public
Policy Implications of Research on the Role of Mass Media in Society
Current Research: Professor Dixon’s
research interests center around the portrayal of people of color in the
mass media and the effect of these images on audiences. His research incorporates
psychological theories of stereotyping, critical theories of race, and
communication theories of media effects. Professor Dixon's latest work
investigates presentations of race and crime on television news and the
impact of these presentations on viewer stereotypes. This research examines
the linkage between stereotypic content and social judgments regarding
race and crime phenomena using a variety of approaches including quantitative
content analyses, experiments, and surveys.
Representative Research Publications:
Dixon, T. L. & Linz, D. (1997). Obscenity law and sexually explicit
rap music: Understanding the effects of sex, attitudes, and beliefs. Journal
of Applied Communication Research, 25, 217- 241.
Dixon, T.L. (2000). A social cognitive approach to studying racial stereotyping
in the mass media. African American Research Perspectives, 6(1), 60-68.
Dixon, T. L. & Linz, D. (2000a). Overrepresentation and underrepresentation
of African Americans and Latinos as lawbreakers on television news. Journal
of Communication, 50(2), 131-154.
Dixon, T. L., & Linz, D. (2000b). Race and the misrepresentation
of victimization on local television news. Communication Research, 27,
547-573.
Dixon, T. L. (2001). Social cognition and racial stereotyping in the
mass media: Consequences for group identity and intergroup encounters.
In M. Asante, V. Milhouse & P. Nwosu (Eds.), Transcultural realities,
(215-224). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Dixon, T. L. & Linz, D. (2002). Television news, prejudicial pretrial
publicity, and the depiction of race. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic
Media, 46(1), 112-136.
Dixon, T.L. & Brooks, T.(2002). Rap music and rap audiences: Psychological
effects and political resistance. African American Research Perspectives,
8(2), 106-116.
Casas, M., & Dixon, T. L. (2003). The impact of stereotypical and
counter-stereotypical news on viewer perceptions of Blacks and Latinos:
An exploratory study. In A. Valdivia (Ed.), A Companion to Media Studies
(pp. 480-494). London: Blackwell Publishing.
Dixon, T. L. (2003). Racialized portrayals of reporters and criminals
on local television news. In R. A. Lind (Ed.), Race/Gender/Media: Considering
diversity across audiences, content, and producers (pp. 132-139). Boston:
Pearson Education, Inc.
