What would of happened to the Civil Rights Movement without the media coverage?
The media back then and now sets the public agenda. What that means is the media gets to choose what they cover (well those who pay or are in charge of the media do) and this is what the public sees and responds too. The media is not supposed to tell the public what to think but they do tell the public what to think about. Now this relates to the Civil Rights Movement because (in my opinion) without the media covering it, it might not of taken off like it did. This picture was seen by families everywhere because of the media, and this sparked anger and frustration as to how the police were treating African Americans. The coverage of Martin Luther King Jr's speech gave light to the movement as well, broadcasting to people everywhere one of the most quoted speeches in history.
This may seem obvious but to me it was surprising, past events and history were all affected and influenced by media coverage. The JFK assassination pushed the media to be the main source of news, and the radio station that scared the country into thinking we had a "war of the worlds" made the radio the go to place for tragic events. Media coverage is one of the most important systems this country has, and history has shown that without it, maybe things like the civil rights movement would not have succeeded.
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-05/news/mn-380_1_civil-rights-movement
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