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On April 4, 2015, White North Charleston, South Carolina, Police Officer Michael Slager shot and killed Black motorist Walter Scott. Upon the release of a bystander video of the deadly shooting, Mayor Keith Summey and Police Chief Eddie Driggers denounced Slager’s actions and announced his arrest for Scott’s death. This article argues that journalists’ use and subsequent circulation of White savior mythology to narrativize the work of the two leaders offered a message of hope, progress, and White redemption, anchored in a vision of a “post-racial” United States.

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This chapter considers the definitional and disciplinary politics surrounding the study of memory, exploring the various sites of memory study that have emerged within the field of communication. Specifically, this chapter reviews sites of memory and commemoration, ranging from places such as museums, monuments, and memorials, to textual forms, including journalism and consumer culture. Within each context, this chapter examines the ways in which these sites have interpreted and reinterpreted traumatic pasts bearing great consequence for national identity. It concludes with a discussion of the challenges set forth by new media for scholars engaging in studies of the politics of memory and identifies areas worthy of future research.