TY - JOUR
T1 - Neutralizing Protest: The Construction of War, Chaos, and National Identity through US Television News on Abortion-Related Protest, 1991
AU - Husting, Ginna
PY - 2006/7/1
Y1 - 2006/7/1
N2 - This paper examines how US TV news on abortion-related protest forecloses possibilities for democracy and political action. Representing abortion-related activism as a battle, news segments portray activists, correspondents, and viewers as villains, witnesses, and victims in a tale of a nation decimated by civil war. While activists describe their work militaristically, the news's war is not the war that activists describe. News discourse represents activists as threatening the American family/community/nation. Applying Hannah Arendt's and Mary Douglas's work shows how the news eclipses public spheres by mapping a pollution narrative onto those who threaten myths of national homogeneity and proper citizenship.
AB - This paper examines how US TV news on abortion-related protest forecloses possibilities for democracy and political action. Representing abortion-related activism as a battle, news segments portray activists, correspondents, and viewers as villains, witnesses, and victims in a tale of a nation decimated by civil war. While activists describe their work militaristically, the news's war is not the war that activists describe. News discourse represents activists as threatening the American family/community/nation. Applying Hannah Arendt's and Mary Douglas's work shows how the news eclipses public spheres by mapping a pollution narrative onto those who threaten myths of national homogeneity and proper citizenship.
KW - Abortion
KW - Agonism
KW - Democracy
KW - National Identity
KW - News
UR - https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/sociology_facpubs/15
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14791420600633089
U2 - 10.1080/14791420600633089
DO - 10.1080/14791420600633089
M3 - Article
JO - Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies
JF - Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies
ER -