A content analysis of the political leadership language of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

摘要

This study examined the language used by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. A content analysis examined the use of transformational and transactional language, as well as language associated with the political issues pursued by the Klan. One hundred nine articles were extracted from six Klan publications providing 150,756 words of textual material. Six dictionaries were created centering on the topics of immigration, education, law enforcement, religion, racism, and language labeled Klan, used as a means of self-identification; also created were two dictionaries inclusive of transformational and transactional words. Two MANOVA's and two ANOVA's were conducted which indicated a higher proportional use of transformational than transactional language at the article level. ANOVA and Scheffe post hoc tests also indicated significant relationship between articles, and between publications. At the article level the analysis revealed the Klan used transformational language when addressing the issue of immigration. Analysis also revealed that the percent use of racism language differed between Klan publications. The difference between the publications may be a result of demographics associated with the respective regions in which the periodicals were published. What became evident was that religious intolerance and racism were of secondary importance within the Klan's sociopolitical beliefs. Historically, religious intolerance and racism have been the defining characteristic of the organization because they appeared to be salient aspects of its rhetoric. The content analysis, however, indicated they were not the principal issues the organization pursued; they were, in fact, the word categories least emphasized.