Innovation or Insulation? Authorship Networks for Student Loan News Articles and Discussions of Race and Racism

• In Event: Financial Aid and Literacy Unveiled: Insights Into Student Wellness, Discourse, Innovation, and Accessibility

Abstract

One of the key areas of the policy ecosystem that helps to shape policymakers’ and the public’s understanding of student loans is the news media. Prior research emphasizes the causal impact of the media on the social construction of policy issues and the lack of knowledge about the authors of student loan articles. Therefore, we used social network analysis to investigate the colleges of authors for articles published in 8 newspapers from 2006 to 2021. We found evidence of a stark status hierarchy among the colleges attended (over half the authors attended an Ivy Plus or Public Flagship institution) and of a negative relationship between that hierarchy and use of racialized language in student loan news articles.

Authors

• Dominique Baker, University of Delaware

• Jaime Ramirez-Mendoza, University of California - Davis

• Lauren M. Shook, University of Texas - El Paso

• Christopher Bennett, RTI International