Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States by Jules Boykoff

Author:Jules Boykoff [Boykoff, Jules]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Censorship, Media Studies, Social Science, Civil Rights, Political Science
ISBN: 9781904859598
Google: kpaQAAAAMAAJ
Goodreads: 1330560
Publisher: AK Press
Published: 2007-01-15T06:42:17+00:00

Part III

Mass Media and the Suppression of Dissent

Chapter Eleven

Mass Media Manipulation

Introduction

The mass media constitute a crucial site for the construction of social reality, an ever-unfolding discursive locale that deeply influences public opinion on social issues and significantly delimits societal assumptions and public moods. As such, in the contemporary era, the mass media play an important role carving the course of history. Historian Rodger Streitmatter (1997, 2, emphasis in original) has observed, “As the news media report and comment on the events of the day, they wield enormous influence on those events.” He concludes that “news media have shaped American history. Absolutely. Boldly. Proudly. Fervently. Profoundly” (234). Reinforcing a central point, Murray Edelman adds, “The concepts and categorizations that language constructs are therefore not instruments of expression but potent creators of what we accept as reality” (2001, 113, emphasis added). Accordingly, mass-media coverage or a lack thereof influences the nature, form, and development of social movements, as well as the ability of these movements to reach their goals (Kielbowicz and Scherer 1986, 72).

As previously mentioned, generating preferably favorable media coverage is one of the critical preconditions for collective action. Therefore, understanding the role of the mass media is crucial to comprehending how social movements coalesce, build, and maintain themselves, as well as how they decide to frame their dissident messages. “Because the mass media play such a central role in modern societies,” writes Bert Klandermans (1992, 79), “social movements are increasingly involved in a symbolic struggle over meaning and interpretations.” Thus, media discourse is not only vital in terms of framing social issues and problems for the attentive public, but it is also a place of ideological and ideational struggle for various social movements, state actors, and institutions (Gamson 1992b, 71; McAdam 1996b, 346–348). Fashioned differently, the relationship between any dissident citizen or social movement group and the mass media has at least two dimensions: a structural dimension (the battle over access) and a cultural dimension (the battle over meaning) (Wolfsfeld 1997, 13–55).

As such, the mass media have played an important historical role in suppressing dissent in the United States. While dissidents are sometimes able to frame issues and grievances in a manner satisfactory to them (Wolfsfeld 1997), they are more often frustrated by what they deem inadequate—and sometimes even derisive—mass-media coverage (Gitlin 1980; Small 1994). In describing this double-bind, Sidney Tarrow (1998, 116) adds a layer of complexity:

The influence of the media on the perception of movements’ actions is double-edged. On the one hand, a growing ‘frame’ of the media is that public life is corrupt, a point of view that is comfortable for readers and viewers because it justifies inaction or demobilization. On the other hand, the interest of movement-mounted dramatic activities quickly fades for the media unless they change or escalate their routines. When protests escalate, the media will continue to offer coverage, but are quick to give priority to their violent or bizarre aspects.

Accordingly, the interplay between social movements and the mass media results in a dialectic of escalation in which dissidents feel pressed to amp up their tactics.

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