Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Communication Studies Faculty Publications Communication Studies 2008 Calling Dick Tracy! Or, Cellphone Use, Progress, and a Racial Paradigm Judith A. Nicholson Wilfrid Laurier University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/coms_faculty Recommended Citation Nicholson, Judith A., "Calling Dick Tracy! Or, Cellphone Use, Progress, and a Racial Paradigm" (2008). Communication Studies Faculty Publications. 17. http://scholars.wlu.ca/coms_faculty/17 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Communication Studies at Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Studies Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Calling Dick Tracy! or, Cellphone Use, Progress, and a Racial Paradigm1 Judith A. Nicholson Wilfrid Laurier University Abstract: The hero and phone-watch from Dick Tracy are evoked regularly in news and studies of cellphone use. This paper argues that the racial paradigm of White law enforcer and Dark law-breaker in the comic strip resonates in con- temporary evocations and in discussions of cellphone use and crime. Representations of mobile communication and racialized criminality in Dick Tracy were inspired by the 1930s “war on crime” that intersected with wireless innovations and with lynching. This paper interprets that repeated evocation of the comic strip is a “perverse nostalgia” for an old-fashioned form of law and order premised on racialized violence and viewing. Keywords: Cultural analysis Résumé : Les études et nouvelles sur l’utilisation du téléphone cellulaire font souvent référence au détective de bande dessinée Dick Tracy et à sa montre téléphonique.