Lauren Neher, 2019
Social Movements and the Media’s Integral Role
During the mid 20th century, many civil movements against the injustices of society were in full swing around developed parts of the globe. Beginning as local grassroots organizations, these movements soon gained followers and notoriety as their messages spread. The two most well known causes, in parallel to one another, were the women’s movement (second wave feminism) and the civil rights movement. Both looked to alter and introduce laws that would change their group's societal status as second class citizens. They also featured key players that came to represent the movement as a whole, as well as factions of the movement that introduced and spread their own tactics and ideas. Both had the goal to take their movements to a national level, to enact real long-lasting change. In order to do this, activists supporting whichever cause had to figure out approaches to take in order to get themselves heard. As a result of the technological boom of the previous 50 years, activists were able to take advantage of these newer forms of media to shed light on their cause. However, it wasn’t all that simple. Broadcasters didn’t always give fair time or representation to either movements. Many stations (local and national) painted segments of both causes as extreme, aggressive, and possibly violent and dangerous. Regardless, the entanglement of the media within these movements shed light on what they were trying to achieve. Real social change for these groups came about because of the exposure they gained through media. In analyzing these movements and the media's involvement, we can examine the importance of the media to these movements, the various representations of the movements in media, the impacts of these representations.
To begin, one must understand why the media was so important to both these movements. For African-Americans and women the media, particularly television and film, portrayed both groups based on a white male point of view. For blacks, issues of violence and type casting in movies in the early 20th century lead to misrepresentation and caricaturization. Further, on local TV channels, black Americans weren’t given a voice as everything was controlled by and for whites. In Kay Mills, “Changing Channels: The Civil Rights Case that Transformed Television”, Mills examines a channel, located in Jackson, Mississippi, set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement. One of the owners of channel WLBT, Fred Beard, was on the White Citizens Council. Wanting to continue separate but “equal”, Beard and others at the station broadcast biased race relations, encouraging states rights as a defense for segregation. As well as backing segregation, WLBT’s only coverage of African-Americans was when they committed a crime. One example of this black invisibility was Rev. R.L.T Smith’s attempt to go on air to encourage black congressional votes. Wanting to get black voters to pay their poll tax before payments were up, the congressional candidate was rejected by Beard because the election was months ahead and his announcement would therefore be “irrelevant”. For white Jacksonians, WLBT-TV, “was a sign of their progress” (Mills, 1) despite actually slowing progress for people of color.
For women, issues of representation stem from what Betty Friedan refers to as the “feminine mystique”. In her article, “Television and the Feminine Mystique”, Friedan describes the feminine mystique as a way American society has viewed women since World War II. The woman, she argues, is “defined solely in sexual terms, as a man’s wife, mother, love object, dishwasher and general server of physical needs” (Friedan, 7). Due to historical coincidences, misunderstood needs of the sexes, and ideas on gender pressed by specialists in society, the notion of the “feminine” woman was established. This formed ideas of women as inferior to their husbands, their place in the home, and incapable of thought or action. As a result, the growth of feminine power in society was stunted as women became displaced individuals. Women’s limited roles outside of the home was reflected on television and taken to such an extreme that T.V further dehumanized the image of females in real life. At the time, the only shows with a woman as the lead were comedies where the main character, the housewife, would engage in battle with her “boob” husband. In order to keep her femininity, however, she always accepted defeat or would pretend to lose to her husband. In other genres of television, women were never given lead roles - only supporting. As Friedan explains, there are two reasons for this. First, according to producers and show executives Friedan interviewed, housewives watching T.V during the day have no desire to see a successful, independent woman in control of her own life. Instead, they wished to see an attractive single man, one they could fantasize about without having to worry about major competition from any female characters. The second reason being that a woman leading a drama, making decisions and triumphing over conflict, is according to an MGM executive Friedan questioned, “unpleasant, dominant, masculine”, (Friedan, 21). The rationale is that housewives are dominated by men and women will react negatively to seeing a successful woman. These images of women on T.V are what Friedan describes as a, “stupid, unattractive, insecure, little household drudge who spends her . . . days dreaming of love - and plotting nasty revenge against her husband” (Friedan, 6). This simplistic view of women in the media as well as the exclusion of women in serious roles discouraged the empowerment of women while limiting women’s roles in the public sphere.
Due to the media’s mass reach and power, demeaning representations of women and people of color set these groups back while creating low expectations for their roles in society. For these reasons, groups fought back against their initial limited power in media. With representational change, how these groups fit in and were treated by society altered as well. As the civil rights and feminist movements grew, their tactics began to take aim at the media. By drawing in on television and radio, these groups were able to draw attention to themselves and further spread their agendas. With greater awareness and notoriety their cause was able to reach national levels and provoke real conversations about the issues at hand, launching legal actions from the government and calling into question society’s viewpoints.
In order to challenge the status quo in broadcasting both groups had to do something provocative and daring, an act that would grab the media’s attention. When it came to the civil rights movement, mass marches, sit-ins, and widespread boycotts were common tactics. One group of civil rights activists that successfully captured the attention of the media was a sect of students and staff fromTougaloo College. As Steven D. Classen describes in his article “Watching Jim Crow: The Struggles Over Mississippi TV, 1955-1969”, this small group of individuals started their campaign as a way to, “force the issue of their exclusion into the places of white middle-class entertainment, exposing as myth the assumptions that entertainment and its consumption were unentangled in the politics of race” (Classen, 85). The group began by walking into segregated public spaces, such as the Jackson Public Library and concert halls. Later, their actions involved the larger media as entertainers from all mediums cancelled their appearances in Jackson at the urging of the Tougaloo students. The group's activism “threw the cultural practices of white supremacy, including those of local broadcasters, into question and under wide scrutiny” (Classen, 85). With the continued cancellation of cultural and entertainment events, the exposition of segregated entertainments vulnerability became apparent. Actors from popular shows Bonanza, USA, and Original Hootenanny also cancelled their appearances in Jackson, prompting a temporary boycott from Jackson citizens that proved to be unsuccessful. This specific campaign during the civil rights movement demonstrated the ability for minority groups to claim their space in cultural and entertainment centers all while capturing the attention of the media and entertainment industries against the struggle to end segregation.
With the women’s movement, the first campaign to successfully attract media attention was the 1968 Miss America Pageant. The pageant became a symbol of conventional American womanhood, it was also the most watched event on television for much of the 1960’s. This made it the perfect target for feminist protests. According to Bonnie J. Dow’s publication, “Watching Women’s Liberation 1970: Feminism’s Pivotal Years on the Network News” the pageant came under fire from feminists because of the “critique of racism, militarism, and capitalism; in addition, . . . the contest promoted the “win - or - you’re - worthless competitive disease”” (Dow, 32). Organized by the first radical feminist group in New York City, the New York Radical Women, the pageant drew much attention for it’s Freedom Trash Can. Items tossed in the trash can included high heels, makeup, wigs, issues of Playboy, Ladies’ Home Journal, and other objects that represented women’s oppression in society. As well as the trash can, there was a puppet with chains encircling it and a live sheep crowned as Miss America. The spectacle of it all was what drew media attention to the protest, more focus was placed upon the demonstration and not so much the issues the feminists were trying to raise.
Other high-profile protests that took place include the Ladies’ Home Journal sit-in. Coming on the heels of numerous media protests done by feminists, the LHJ sit-in was planned in order to increase women’s roles in producing the magazine. Ladies’ Home Journal, along with other publications, was run by a heavily male editorial and writing staff. On March 18, 1970, about 100 women-lead by Signe Hammer and Susan Brownmiller-stormed into the magazines’ office in New York and read their list of demands. The list included changes such as “a female editor-in chief, an all-female editorial and writing staff, and the hiring of “non-white women at all levels in proportion to the population statistics”” (Dow, 100). Changes in content included altering sole focus on women’s responsibility in the home and the removement of advertisements that degraded women. While John Mack Carter, the editor-in-chief, refused to sign off on their demands, he allowed for eight pages of LHJ’s August issue to be turned over for feminist articles. While the sit-in proved to be conducive, radical feminists felt the demands were not significant enough. Still, the movement was successful in challenging the status quo of the magazine’s content. While though it didn’t happen immediately, by 1973 the Ladies’ Home Journal had their first female editor-in-chief. The movement was able to get their objectives in print while also raising the issue of the editorial and writing staff makeup. These direct tactics and others similar to them raised further awareness of issues feminists looked to challenge.
The media represented the feminist movement in a variety of ways. When the movement started taking off in 1970, CBS and ABC focused on the visual aspects of the movement, not the underlying reasons behind the protests, sit-ins, etc. Because they focused on the disruption of activists, never their causes for the disruption, these channels “amplified the impression (created by the visuals) that the feminists were making trouble for no good reason” (Dow, 55). The idea of “sexism” was considered by CBS and ABC as a feminist issue, not a human rights one. Also, the separate factions of feminism were played out by these channels. Liberal feminism was considered more legitimate and rational while radical feminism was seen as illegitimate and “militant”. The channel NBC, on the other hand, expressed the movement as a more legitimate one than did CBS and ABC. The approach NBC took was more of a human-interest focus, reporting on workplace discrimination, gender socialization, and sexism. NBC, unlike CBS and ABC, didn’t play out the whole radical v.s liberal feminism concept, both were seen as part of an entire movement. Print news, especially in New York, covered the movement widely as it was a social trend story at the time. This wave of coverage was more thoughtful and provided activists and feminists writers the chance to freelance stories. By the time network news began to cover the movement, feminism was already established by the print media as a legitimate topic and therefore ripe for network news interpretation.
With various representations portrayed by the news, the feminist movement experienced both positive and negative consequences from the media’s and their own actions. Aggressive protests like the 1968 Miss America Pageant tended to gain attention for its vivid display and wasn’t taken seriously. Tactics used were also viewed as alienating and offensive. The rumor of bra burning, which would later become a sexualized, petty symbol of the movement, started at this campaign and became a common stereotype of feminists. Other campaigns, including “speak-outs” in support of abortion, brought up the issue at hand to state legislators. These campaigns raised awareness of not only the “shameful” act of abortion but also the phenomenon of rape. Through the attention feminists raised during their “speak-outs”, rape crises centers and advocacy groups were established for victims. Further spread of the movement into public consciousness came from Gloria Steinem's Ms. Magazine. This publication was the first feminist magazine aimed at the general public, publishing stories of successful women and covering grassroots activism across the country. As the movement continued to grow, backlash was fueled by unfair portrayals in the media. Many viewed the movement as extreme, as a bunch of angry irrational women protesting trivial issues. Others viewed it as an attack on the foundations of American society. Christian-lead groups protested against the strides feminism had made, attempting to take back the family dynamic and fight against feminist, gay, and abortion pro-agendas. With this continued backlash the struggle for women’s rights continues on as the consequences of the media and the movements actions are still felt today.
The media both helped and hindered 20th century social movements struggles to be heard. The attention groups were able to draw from the media further shed light on their causes and began a national conversation about the issues at hand. Both movements and the media manipulated one another to get the product they wanted. With coverage of the movements, broadcasts and newspapers picked up a trending social topic that engrossed consumers. Social movements gained an upper hand with the added coverage by media outlets as their messages spread and furthered the conversation about the issues they fought for. The relationship between the media and social movements, though hostile at times, was symbiotic in that each benefitted from the other. With the evolution of the movements came the evolution of the relevance of network news. Each impacted one another’s progression and brought about changes in consumption and the social treatment of minority groups.
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