Troubled Pasts: News and the Collective Memory of Social Unrest - Softcover

Edy, Jill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1592134971 ISBN 13: 9781592134977

Publisher: Temple University Press, 2006

Synopsis

Describes the ways that the news media influences the development of our public past and how those publicly available pasts affect our understanding of current events

About this title

Review

"Jill Edy provides a fascinating and important contribution to the study of political communication. Using a creative and fruitful research design, she demonstrates the way political actors communicate about the present through the lens of the past." Kathleen Cramer Walsh, Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison "In her comprehensive study...Edy advances the study of collective memory in several ways." The International Journal of Communication "An important addition to the literature on how news is framed and how agendas are set...Edy's analysis is thoughtful and her citations are thorough." Choice "Troubled Pasts offers an excellent introduction to the concept of collective memory...Edy examines how journalists craft not only the proverbial 'first draft' of history but how they help shape later drafts. She also offers an interesting discussion and examples of three ways in which journalists contribute to historical understanding--or misunderstanding: commemorations, analogies, and contexts. The way in which she weaves together journalistic and political issues makes the book appropriate for consideration in a wide range of classes, including media history, media criticism, reporting, U.S. history, political science or sociology...It is well researched, cites numerous sources for journalistic content and theoretical context, and includes a clear discussion of methodology." Journalism History "Well researched and thought-provoking...a smart book that is of interest to anybody who understands the development of the social stock of knowledge and collective memory as a powerful social process." H-Net "Edy's short book is extremely well written and her work is well grounded in the literatures of communication and political science. As such, the work is an excellent resource for scholars interested in political communication, framing, media studies, and social history. It makes a significant contribution to our collective understanding of social movements and media coverage of them." Perspectives on Politics "The overall argument of the book is a strong one and even people who have no particular interest in the events of 40 years ago will find Troubled Pasts a good theoretical model and a good guide to how we might best use the literature about reporting, remembering, framing and motivation." "Communications Research Trends"

Synopsis

Using the Watts riots and the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention as examples, Jill Edy tells how collective memories of troubled pasts emerge in public discourse and how these memories shape the representation of contemporary events. Edy develops a framework that identifies how collective memories are negotiated in the news, the characteristics of collective memory narratives, how those stories influence and are influenced by more recent events, and whose interests they serve. In so doing she offers contributions to the literatures on collective memory, media and politics, and theories of framing. She explores relationships among political leaders, journalists, and citizens and explores how competing frameworks of memory are synthesized or abandoned in response to changing power relationships and current events.

Edition details

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1592134971
• ISBN 13: 9781592134977
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232