'The first draft of history' : how the process of news construction has influenced our understanding of the civil and gay rights movements of the 1960s
Produced on a regular basis and dealing with a wide range of events, newspaper data represents a treasure trove of information for researchers interested in the lives of previous generations. Unfortunately, however, the extent to which media data is used in historical research has not been matched by a similar engagement with media history and theory. Indeed, whether relying on media data for analysis or simply the âhard factsâ, scholars often accept this record without asking the right questions about how it was constructed and why. In contrast, this thesis questions the relationship between the mainstream press in the United States and social activists in a range of organisations and movements. Focused on groups within the civil and gay rights movements of the 1960s, this study not only highlights how the mainstream media has misrepresented activism, but also locates the genesis of these distortions in the process of news production. Importantly, and unlike many revisionist works that present activists as the passive victims of a powerful mainstream media, this thesis builds on theory from within sociology and communication science to demonstrate the symbiotic nature of this process. Indeed, while their
Walmsley, Mark Joseph
'The first draft of history' : how the process of news construction has influenced our understanding of the civil and gay rights movements of the 1960s. Produced on a regular basis and dealing with a wide range of events, newspaper data represents a treasure trove of information for researchers interested in the lives of previous generations. Unfortunately, however, the extent to which media data is used in historical research has not been matched by a similar engagement with media history and theory. Indeed, whether relying on media data for analysis or simply the âhard factsâ, scholars often accept this record without asking the right questions about how it was constructed and why. In contrast, this thesis questions the relationship between the mainstream press in the United States and social activists in a range of organisations and movements. Focused on groups within the civil and gay rights movements of the 1960s, this study not only highlights how the mainstream media has misrepresented activism, but also locates the genesis of these distortions in the process of news production. Importantly, and unlike many revisionist works that present activists as the passive victims of a powerful mainstream media, this thesis builds on theory from within sociology and communication science to demonstrate the symbiotic nature of this process. Indeed, while their
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