The Cultural Politics of Marijuana: Marijuana, the News Media, and Recreational Legalization

• In Event: 228 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 05. Cultural Sociology and Politics

Abstract

After nearly a century of prohibition the legal status of marijuana in United States is undergoing significant change. Several states have broken with federal policy legalizing the recreational use and commercial sales of the psychoactive, and at the time of writing several more have legislation pending. This paper suggests that to understand the change before us we must explore the “cultural politics” of marijuana in the United States. Using the New York Times as a proxy for the political public sphere in the United States several qualitative and quantitative measures of articles were made, and preliminary analysis indicates interesting patterns of how we ‘speak’ about marijuana in the political public sphere. This in turn produces additional insight as to why we are currently seeing the recent spate of legal changes, and presents avenues for further studies.

Author

• Andrew Horvitz, SUNY New Paltz