1995/10/01 by David E. Sumner · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #American Political and Social Dynamics #Race, History, and American Society #Media Studies and Communication #Newspaper #Media coverage #Convergence (economics) #News media #Political science #Public relations #Sociology #Media studies #Perspective (graphical) #Advertising #Business
paper · doi:10.1080/10646179509361687
openalex publication_date 1995/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The Nashville Student Movement, which occurred in 1960, was a series of lunch counter sit‐in demonstrations organized by students from the city's four predominantly black institutions of higher education. This article looks at local and national media coverage of the events from the students' perspective. Generally, the students saw the media, especially television, as an ally in winning public support. A demonstration seeks to make a public statement, and any media coverage helped convey that. Because the Nashville students were committed to nonviolence, media coverage also helped show that if violence occurred, the students were not the ones who initiated it. Traditional news values encouraged coverage of conflicts between “good guys” against “bad guys.” However, when the civil rights movement progressed beyond integration of public facilities, news coverage ceased to be as sympathetic.