Text Based, #4

Todd Giltin describes in his essay “The Media in the Making of the New Left” that “the observer changed the position of the observed.” This is the quintessential model of contemporary media coverage theory and how it effects people’s perceptions about what is being portrayed. Since the implementation of modern network media social protests have been affected both positively and negatively, for example the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Modern network media as well as independent news sources, especially television have had significant impact on the execution and efforts of social movements. These media organizations are capable of bringing regional or national attention to virtually an issue by “informing” them of the facts. This is true of radio, newspapers, television and these days the internet; most networks like CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC (not to mention international news organizations like the Associated Press) have their hand in virtually all of these forms of information dissemination. With multi-millions of viewers, listeners and readers these media groups are able to carry massive influence through how they report facts and which facts they chose to report.

Gitlin explains in his essay that there are 6 specific ways in which media organizations can accomplish this. These include trivialization which is essentially down playing or making fun of a social movement situation. This serves as an effective way to downplay movement and make it seem as though it is unimportant and will not affect the general viewing public. For example in the civil rights movement we discussed the case of Claudette Colvin and her refusal to give up her seat on the Montgomery public bus. Her story was largely overshadowed by that later attempts of Rose Parks, she was also portrayed by the Kingsport Press out of Kingsport Tennessee as simply another Negro acting out, and this demonstrates pro-white bias and sheds a bit of light on the political motives behind that particular newspaper. The New York Times only mentioned the case after the fact when a court discussion was made several months later. The way these two separate newspapers portrayed the event are different in their execution but still serve to show the event as seemingly insignificant. This insignificance was adopted by the readers of these papers and thereby effectively killed the true meaning of this event. This could be one of the reasons why Colvin’s event is excluded from many formal civil rights discussions.

Another theme that Gitlin explains is polarization. This can be a difficult aspect to see through. In the context of the Civil Rights movement the definition of polarity must be understood to mean a marked dichotomy (I.e. whites vs. blacks.) During the Civil Rights Movement especially some of the public protest marches local and regional television (which is that the majority of TV was during this time) attempted to show exclusively blacks during filmed segments of the protest though there were also numbers of white folks who participated as well. By doing so the television network emphasized that marked division between the groups, perhaps unintentionally, as a way continue the divide between the two groups.

A third point that is instrumental in fully understanding the affect of media on the civil rights movement is disparagement of the movement’s effectiveness. Film media of the day (and that which is used in many formal discussions) is of non-violent peaceful protests like sit-ins and marches. Popular media and much of the American general public especially the political right scoffed at these types of protests, deemed them ineffective and therefore discounted the movement and the cause as a whole as a futile effort. Another facet of this disparagement in the media is showing footage of these demonstrations being broken up, sometimes in a violent manner on the part of the authorities. For example, the beating and spraying of peaceful protesters with high pressure fire hoses. This media footage was easily edited and spun like the police were doing the city a favor by cleaning up potential violence.

The aforementioned are some of the ways that the media generated a negative affect on the Civil Rights Movement. The media was also however instrumental in its success as well. Dr King’s speeches were televised, broadcast nationally and recorded. Through this he was allowed to further spread the powerful message of the movement. It was not him, but the networks which decided to air these speeches and by doing so they made a conscious decision as to which dace of the movement they wanted to present to the nation. As a whole, the media was instrumental in the ultimate success of the civil rights movement and is an essential piece of any social movement weather the movements organizers like to admit it or not.