Description
It is primarily through media institutions that Americans shape and interpret their values. Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News- though representing different shadings of political ideology, ranging from left of center to conservative- were all aimed at the same audience, middle-class Americans. Therefore their influence on the nation's values during a period of enormous social upheaval was significant. In the mid-1960s, when King shifted from reform to radicalism, the news magazines were thrust into what Lentz calls a ""crisis of Symbols"" because King no longer fit the symbolic mold the magazines had created for him. Lentz investigates how the magazines responded to this crisis, discussing the ways in which their analyses of King shifted over time and the means they employed to create a new symbolic image that made sense of King's radicalization for readers.
This is an important, perceptive study of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s career and an astute critical analysis of the reporting practices of the news media in the modern era.
Book Information
ISBN 9780807125243
Author Richard Lentz
Format Paperback
Page Count 277
Imprint Louisiana State University Press
Publisher Louisiana State University Press