Abstract
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.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Readings on the Rhetoric of Social Protest |
| State | Published - 1 Jan 2013 |
Keywords
- abortion
- agonism
- democracy
- national identity
- news
EGS Disciplines
- Sociology