Race, Media, and the Crisis of Civil Society

Abstract

Since the early nineteenth century, African-Americans have turned to black newspapers to monitor the mainstream media and to develop alternative interpretations of public events. Ronald Jacobs tells the stories of these newspapers, showing how they increased black visibility within white civil society and helped to form separate black public spheres in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Comparing African-American and 'mainstream' media coverage of some of the most memorable racial crises of the last forty years such as the Watts riot, the beating of Rodney King, the Los Angeles uprisings and the O. J. Simpson trial, Jacobs shows why a strong African-American press is still needed today. Race, Media and the Crisis of Civil Society challenges us to rethink our common understandings of communication, solidarity and democracy. Its engaging style and thorough scholarship will ensure its appeal to students, academics and the general reader interested in the mass media, race and politics.

Cultural Pragmatics: Social Performance between Ritual and Strategy

“…For those separated further, neither psychological identification nor cultural extension will likely occur. Fragmented performance interpretations feed back into the construction of subcultures, providing memories that in turn segment perceptions of later performances (Jacobs 2000). If there are some shared memories, by contrast, audiences will experience social drama in a deeper and broadened way.…”

“…It might even be said that, in a differentiated, stratified, and reflexive society, a strategy's success depends on belief in the validity of the cultural contents of the strategist's symbolic communication and on accepting the authenticity and even the sincerity of another's strategic intentions. Virtually every kind of modern collectivity, moreover, seems to depend at one time or another on integrative processes that create some sense of shared identity (Giesen 1998;Spillman 1997;Ringmar 1996), even if these are forged, as they all too often are, in opposition to simplistic constructions of those who are putatively on the other side (Jacobs 2000;Ku 1999;Chan 1999).…”

When Time Freezes: Socio-Anthropological Research on Social Crises

“…Along these lines, the core purpose of the concept of social drama is to provide an empirical tool for the study of social change. This model has been repeatedly used in social and cultural anthropology and also in other disciplines, to study situations of conflict and disruption in different scenarios, from daily life to vast national crises where mass media play a central role in the representation of the critical scenario (Cottle 2005;Wagner-Pacifici 1986;Alexander, 1988;Alexander and Jacobs 1998;Jacobs 2000). Examples of anthropological studies in Latin America that have used Turner's approach are Guber's (2000) The social drama model has some converging aspects with Marshall Sahlins' analysis of the arrival of James Cook and his fleet to Hawaii in 1779.…”

Nationalizing States and the Constitution of ‘Hollow Citizenship’: Israel and its Palestinian Citizens

“…It is customary to regard the mass media as a central institutional player in modern societies, especially when concerned with social conflicts (Hoffmann-Riem, 1996;Wolfsfeld, 1997;Jacobs, 2000). The media is a key actor in determining the public agenda and designing public opinion on a variety of issues.…”