Assignment 5: The Media

The message a social movement relays to the public has traditionally dealt with a filtering — and often distorting — gate keeper: the press. When news media latches onto a social movement, the effects present a double-edged sword for that movement, lending much needed legitimacy and public attention to the movement but at the price of simplification and misrepresentation. This effect is what prompted social movements writer Todd Gitlin to remark: “The observer changed the position of the observed.”

These endemic problems with media coverage can be traced to intrinsic characteristics of the press as an intuition. The media’s traditional business model operates like many other business beholden to consumer interests and motivations. It seeks stories people find interesting, engaging, and consumable. However, these pressures take a toll on the product news media produces as well as the coverage it can afford to provide. The media gravitates toward easily explainable, emotional stories — characteristics not all social movements fulfill. In addition, the media’s attention tends to wax and wane with new developments in a movement. For example, a new movement or an event will attract the media’s attention, while continuing messages and efforts tend to fatigue outlets and diminish coverage.

On the other end, the message a movement conveys through the media is subjected to certain alterations vis-à-vis simplification and reframing for the purpose of mass dissemination. With the exception of niche publications, most media outlets — particularly mainstream media — markets to a broad audience. Accordingly, messages must often be tailored for the lowest common denominator and constructed in ways that resonate with the greatest number of people. For a social movement, this “repackaging” of their message can be detrimental to overall effectiveness.

In addition, media may outright misrepresent aspects of a movement. For instance, the news tends to report most heavily on stories that provide striking visuals or situations of high drama. In the realm of social movements, this often means gravitation toward the more radical groups and away form the larger, more-moderate groups. Disproportionate reporting can misrepresent the members of a social movement by only focusing on a vocal minority to the exclusion of the greater organization. This also leads to a portrayal of polarization on issues that may, in fact, enjoy a substantial public consensus. Media may also marginalize movement members, characterizing them as deviant or atypical and thus providing unwarranted or inaccurate context to the message group members put forward.

Another phenomenon involves a reliance on established authority figures and institutions. News media seek an air of credibility above all. Accordingly, the media relies on comment and context from established and credible sources. However, this can also lead to a propagation of status-quo sentiment that hampers a new social movement.

Many modern social movements have grappled with media portrayal, and nearly all current movements must handle press exposure carefully to preserve their message. The anti-war movement during Vietnam faced considerable challenges from media portraying dissenters as marginalized. As a result, movement organizers found it difficult to accurately convey their numbers and rationale for dissention. They also contended with a media heavily entrenched in government sources of information that emphasized patriotism. Mainstream media took much of what the government said for granted until the famous Walter Cronkite broadcast on the state of the war in Vietnam, prompting Lyndon Johnson to remark: “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost America.”

On the other hand, some social movements have received great benefit from acceptance by the media. The gay rights movement and the LGBTQ movement have found substantial support from Hollywood and entertainment media, as well as tempered acceptance in news media. As members of the media themselves, many movement members took advantage of their public position to advance the movement’s message and, through professional connections, generate acceptance in the media world for their grievances and cause.

The undocumented students movement has received positive, but somewhat marginalized media attention since it was brought to public attention at the turn of the century. Undocumented students provide news media with engaging and morally relevant stories — a win in any editor’s budget lineup. However, their position as legally vulnerable individuals makes many editors and writers hesitant to use students’ names or likenesses and, as a result, chills much of the coverage they might receive. Of course, many undocumented students have chosen to “come out” to the media recently, but these few do not yet provide the push needed for a realization of the issue’s scope. Instead, media coverage tends to cycle as immigration reform bills, such as the DREAM Act, continue to bounce around in Congress.