How do Appalachians receive and understand information about politics? How do these individual's experiences of identity and community influence how they interpret the political information that they receive from media outlets and social interactions? Does the information that Appalachians receive from media sources and social interactions influence decision-making in regards to voting and other forms of political participation? Studies that focus on southern Appalachia, identity, and political information in the United States are very few in number and leave all of the above questions open. The few studies that specifically address southern Appalachians, identity, and politics focus on elite women from rural areas where the subjects are rural women that run for elected office and women members of Congress that are elected from rural districts. Further, the existing studies of identity and politics in southern Appalachia use mostly quantitative methods that are not able to capture the social and individual processes that affect how Appalachians understand political information.

The purpose of this dissertation study is to begin answering the previously stated questions by examining how Appalachian communities along with gender, race, sexuality, and class identities affects how political information is understood in Appalachian North Carolina. Answering these questions is important in helping gain a greater understanding of gender, race and politics, political communication, and American politics as a whole.

The project uses a multi-methods approach that includes archival research, demographic statistical data, participant observation, and in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and focuses on "Dash County" (a pseudonym) in Appalachian North Carolina. Participants are found to hold multiple identities where, depending on the context, some identities become more salient than others. Participants are found to hold internally inconsistent political and social opinions, regardless of the level of political knowledge an individual possesses. Women and men who participated in the study, regardless of demographic differences, reported roughly equal levels of political engagement. Finally, the roles of community proximity and associations have an effect on the likelihood of individuals receiving political information and discussing politics with their community peers.