13. New Frames: A Pastiche of Theoretical Approaches to Examine African American and Diasporic Communication

African American and Blacks across the African Diaspora have a rich history of communication strategies. Scholars sometimes face challenges in attempts to examine African American and African Diasporic communication through the lens of existing theoretical foundations. Some of the approaches used to examine communication phenomenon have included Afrocentricity, critical race theory, critical cultural studies, or social cognitive theory as application to communication processes across the African Diaspora. In this chapter, I examine a synthesis of existing theoretical approaches that could chart a path to gain a better understanding of communication strategies for African Americans and across the African Diaspora. I borrow from the French term pastiche to examine how the use of existing theoretical work can create an expansive palette for addressing communication issues. The theoretical approaches listed are used because they are grounded in different disciplines such as legal studies, African American studies, communication, psychology, and cultural studies, but are interdisciplinary in nature and often used across disciplines during scholarly inquiry. My argument is based on—the pastiche—the blending of scholarly work, which offers the opportunity and possibility to analyze communication messages that occur in a multiplicity of settings with an array of cultural influences.