Popular Trials: Rhetoric, Mass Media, and the Law (Studies in Rhetoric and Communication) - Softcover

 
9780817306984: Popular Trials: Rhetoric, Mass Media, and the Law (Studies in Rhetoric and Communication)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0817306986 ISBN 13: 9780817306984
Publisher: University Alabama Press, 1993

Synopsis

Contemporary scholarship illustrates the law’s increasingly powerful role in American life; legal education, in turn, has focused on the problems and techniques of communication. This book addresses these interests through critical study of eight popular trials: the 17th-century trial of Dr. Henry Sacheverell, and the 20th-century trials of Scopes, the Rosenbergs, the Chicago Seven, the Catonsville Nine, John Hinckley, Claus von Bulow, and San Diego Mayor Larry Hedgecock. Such trials spark major public debates, become symbols of public life, and legitimize particular beliefs and institutions. Despite high visibility and drama, however, the popular trial has not received sufficient study as persuasive event. Lying at the intersection of the institutional practices of law and the mass media, the popular trial has confounded study according to the conventional assumptions of scholarship in both law and communication studies.

This volume defines popular trials as a genre of public communication, a genre that includes trials unusually prominent within public discourse. Further, popular trials are often characterize by special media presentations through televised coverage of the trial itself and news analysis, intense audience identification with the principal actors, and political and social consequences independent of the legal action. The essays in this volume stress the rhetorical functions of popular trials. Contributors in addition to the editor include Lawrance M. Bernabo, Barry Brummett, Celeste Michelle Condit, Juliet Dee, Susan J. Drucker, J. Justin Gustainis, Janice Platt Hunold, William Lewis, John Louis Lucaites, and Larry A. Williamson.

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About the Author

Robert Hariman is Associate Professor of Speech Communication at Drake University.

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Publisher
University Alabama Press
Publication date
1993
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0817306986
ISBN 13 
9780817306984
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1
Number of pages
267
Editor
Hariman Robert

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780817304744: Popular Trials: Rhetoric, Mass Media and the Law (Studies in Rhetoric and Communication)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0817304746 ISBN 13:  9780817304744
Publisher: The University of Alabama Press, 1990
Hardcover