Expanding Political Knowledge: Does All Knowledge Matter?

Stacey Abrams candidacy for governor of Georgia was history-making. While her election would have been monumental, her accomplishments and the accomplishments of many other Black politicians have not and will not be included in the discipline’s study of political knowledge. Previous literature has divided political knowledge into two categories: general knowledge and specific knowledge. Political scientists use surveys to evaluate citizen’s level of political knowledge; however, most surveys only seek to measure general knowledge. This paper seeks to address the way in which political knowledge has been conceptualized and will push for political knowledge to be broadened as a concept. We argue that there is a way political knowledge can be conceptualized that reflects both categories of political knowledge. Also we hypothesize that expanding the concept to incorporate both types of political knowledge would make it more inclusive. This would allow it to capture the various types of knowledge that citizens’ have, which could lead increase political knowledge levels among underrepresented minorities. Due to the lack of understanding about Black political knowledge, this work will draw from the counter public literature and provide a content analysis of newspapers and tweets from “Black Twitter” about the Georgia gubernatorial race in order to broaden the discipline’s understanding political knowledge.