Start Date
4-10-2021 10:45 AM
End Date
4-10-2021 12:00 PM
Disciplines
Film and Media Studies | History | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
Subjects
Rodney King Riots (Los Angeles Calif. : 1992) -- Press coverage -- Analysis, United States -- Race relations -- Political aspects, Police misconduct -- California -- Los Angeles -- History, Korean Americans -- California -- Los Angeles -- History -- 20th century
Description
Using the LA Riots as a case study, this paper examines the impact broadcast journalism had on electoral politics in America by deconstructing the media discourse surrounding the event and reviewing the electorate’s response. Mainstream network broadcast transcriptions and archival footage represent the bulk of source material used. These sources suggest changes in journalistic methods, such as the adoption of the 24-hour news cycle and sensationalist reporting, as well as new technologies like the camcorder which led to the advent of eyewitness reporting, coalesced to influence politics in 1992. Urban crime was linked to an ailing economy, encouraging politicians to seek economic solutions for a ‘cycle of poverty’ that led to the event. However, coverage of the riots by African American and Korean-American sources challenge network media narratives and provided a different perspective on the LA Riots. They identified systemic racism as the main cause. These alternate sources undercut the politically-charged messages peddled through telecast news that largely served conservative political agendas. By weaving riot coverage into the broader history of 1990s American politics, this paper contends that the media discourse on the riots and race ultimately shaped political opinion. 1992 marked a new epoch in American mediascape evolution as narrative authority was partially ceded to citizens with cameras. Further, in understanding how media coverage of civil unrest in 1992 shaped political discourse 28 years ago also helps contextualize recent incidents of civil unrest, and how evolving media technology and journalism interact to shape views on race in political discourse.
PART OF SESSION 6B. SYSTEMIC RACISM:
Comment: Roger Wiblin, Brigham Young University-Idaho
Chair: Marie Stango, Idaho State University
Neave Carroll, University of Washington, undergraduate student
“The LA Uprising on Camera: The Changing Mediascape and Its Influence on Conceptions of Race and Poverty”
Jacob Taylor, Boise State University, undergraduate student
“The Revival of Termination: Fragmenting John Collier’s Bureau of Indian Affairs”
Caitlin Troyer, Carroll College, undergraduate student
“Suppressing the Black Male Vote: Ronald Reagan and the War on Drugs”
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35217
Included in
Film and Media Studies Commons, History Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons
The LA Uprising on Camera: The Changing Mediascape and Its Influence on Conceptions of Race and Poverty
Using the LA Riots as a case study, this paper examines the impact broadcast journalism had on electoral politics in America by deconstructing the media discourse surrounding the event and reviewing the electorate’s response. Mainstream network broadcast transcriptions and archival footage represent the bulk of source material used. These sources suggest changes in journalistic methods, such as the adoption of the 24-hour news cycle and sensationalist reporting, as well as new technologies like the camcorder which led to the advent of eyewitness reporting, coalesced to influence politics in 1992. Urban crime was linked to an ailing economy, encouraging politicians to seek economic solutions for a ‘cycle of poverty’ that led to the event. However, coverage of the riots by African American and Korean-American sources challenge network media narratives and provided a different perspective on the LA Riots. They identified systemic racism as the main cause. These alternate sources undercut the politically-charged messages peddled through telecast news that largely served conservative political agendas. By weaving riot coverage into the broader history of 1990s American politics, this paper contends that the media discourse on the riots and race ultimately shaped political opinion. 1992 marked a new epoch in American mediascape evolution as narrative authority was partially ceded to citizens with cameras. Further, in understanding how media coverage of civil unrest in 1992 shaped political discourse 28 years ago also helps contextualize recent incidents of civil unrest, and how evolving media technology and journalism interact to shape views on race in political discourse.
PART OF SESSION 6B. SYSTEMIC RACISM:
Comment: Roger Wiblin, Brigham Young University-Idaho
Chair: Marie Stango, Idaho State University
Neave Carroll, University of Washington, undergraduate student
“The LA Uprising on Camera: The Changing Mediascape and Its Influence on Conceptions of Race and Poverty”
Jacob Taylor, Boise State University, undergraduate student
“The Revival of Termination: Fragmenting John Collier’s Bureau of Indian Affairs”
Caitlin Troyer, Carroll College, undergraduate student
“Suppressing the Black Male Vote: Ronald Reagan and the War on Drugs”