Reece Peck is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media Culture, where he teaches courses in journalism, marketing, and political communication. His expertise lies in television/digital video news, populist rhetoric, tabloid media, and partisan identity. His first monograph, Fox Populism: Branding Conservatism as Working Class (Cambridge, 2019), offers an in-depth analysis of the Fox News Channel and argues that the conservative network’s real ideological power derives not from its partisan talking points but rather from the cultural-stylistic referents Fox programs use to make such talking points socially meaningful and emotionally compelling. His new research explores the “alt-right” and “alt-left” political channels that proliferated on YouTube during the 2016 and 2018 election cycles.
In addition to publishing articles in academic journals such as Television & New Media (2022), Journalism (2017), and Media, Culture & Society (2014) and edited volumes such as The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism (Routledge, 2021) and News on the Right (Oxford, 2019), Peck has written popular pieces for TV Guide and has provided commentary for outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Vice News. He was among a select group of conservative media scholars to be contacted by the Congressional Investigatory Committee on January 6, those members of Congress who are investigating the 2021 attack on the Capitol building.
Degrees
Ph.D. Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego
M.A. Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego
Books
Fox Populism: Branding Conservatism as Working Class (Cambridge University Press, 2019), *The Korean translation was published in October 2022
Referred Articles
"Comparing populist media: From Fox News to The Young Turks, from cable to YouTube, from right to left.” Television & New Media, published online August 12, 2022.
“Usurping the usable past: How Fox News remembered the Great Depression during the Great Recession.” Journalism, 18 (6), (2017): 680–699.
“‘You say rich, I say job creator’: How Fox News framed the Great Recession through the moral discourse of producerism.” Media, Culture & Society, 36 (4), (2014): 526–35.
Book Chapters
“‘Listen to your gut’: How Fox News’ populist style changed the American public sphere and journalistic truth in the process.” In Silvio Waisbord and Howard Tumber (eds.), Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation & Populism (Routledge, 2021).
“Containing ‘country music marxism’: How Fox News conservatized John Rich’s ‘Shuttin’ Detroit Down.’” In A.J. Bauer and Anthony Nadler (eds.), News on the Right: Studying Conservative News Cultures (Oxford University Press, 2019).
Written Congressional Testimony
“Assessing Fox News’s connection to the January 6 Capitol Riot,” submitted to the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, April 5, 2022.
