The media and especially the television is one of the early technological advancement that drew the attention of the civil rights movement as well as that of politician. They saw the great influence and airtime that the media meant for their campaigns. According to Hall (2007), the local television news had a great influence that shaped the struggle civil rights as civil rights advocates and the segregationists embraced the new medium. It had a greater advantage in terms of the audience than the traditional print media. The television, for example, gave more coverage to campaigns and other events organized by the civil rights movements. Some of the major events that the television broadcasted include the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, the Democratic National Convention of 1964 as well as the murder of Emmitt Till at the age of 15 years. By this time, a majority of American homes had TVs, and therefore, they had a visual of what was happening.
The blacks in the US sought social justice through the civil right movements in the 1950s and 1960s. Although the civil war had brought an end to slavery officially, the blacks, especially those in the South continued facing unfair treatment and racial discrimination. It is the televisions that massively acted as a catalyst for change. It helped the blacks unify in the civil rights movements. Reiser (2001) explains that this technological advancement influenced the framing of social dialogue, shaping the social norms and standards, the spread of news broadcasts as well as the society’s self-perception.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In the 1960’s, the violence of the civil rights movements that received a lot of television coverage promoted the power and unity, and cultural, political, and psychological consciousness among the blacks. If it was not for the violence and the television as well as other media, the civil rights movements would not have been that influential and successful in raising the societal awareness, national consciousness and equality of all Americans regardless of the race.
Reference
Hall, J. D. (2007). The long civil rights movement and the political uses of the past. In The Best American History Essays 2007 (pp. 235-271). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Reiser, R. A. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part I: A history of instructional media. Educational technology research and development , 49 (1), 53.
