The second result was due to a number of reasons. One of them was the Cuban missile crisis; this event had media coverage all over the world as it was in the middle of the ‘cold war’. With the world fully prepared for WWIII, this was one of the most important events in modern history because, as everyone knew at the time, what ever happened here would affect the world. Also because of the previous engagements between NATO forces and Communist forces in Korea twelve years beforehand, tensions between the two political systems were extremely tense and could easily spark off. Luckily for the world, war was avoided; but international tensions would stay frosty because they were fuelled by government propaganda films which greatly influenced the public into their way of thinking.
The next two results are also partly due to media coverage as in 1963, the civil rights movement was an event that most white Americans were indifferent towards. But because of media reports about the marches and demonstrations the civil rights movement and other racial problems became a major issue in everyday life. A good example of this is the march on Washington, where MLK made his famous ‘I have dream’ speech. This event is almost undoubtedly wouldn’t have been as well known if it hadn’t had been televised.
Another good example is the Birmingham protests, where the police and the fire department attacked peaceful protesters with water cannons, dogs and baton charges. Before this would have been swept aside and ignored by the public; but because of the media attention surrounding the protests, there were many cameras and reporters from all over the world. These captured and wrote own events as they happened and pictures typical of the one in source G, which shows child protesters being blasted away with fire hoses, were printed on front pages of newspapers as far away as Ethiopia. The fact that children were bore the brunt of this caused great conversancy across the world, epically in communist countries where the pictures could be used to strengthen they message against the West.
One other factor was the assassination of the US president JFK; this was televised on international TV and was a major pushing force towards the public’s opinion towards the racial problems. This was because JFK was a supporter of the civil rights movement and though his views weren’t strongly recognised whilst he was alive; they were taken on by the American people after his death, and gave a great boost to the plight of the black protesters and raised awareness of the campaign.
The next year, the public had more emphasis on integration rather than sorting out the problems; this was greatly helped again by the media. This year, thought not as active as ‘63, was still very important. In this year, MLK received a Noble Peace Prize for his work in the civil rights movement; this would have been on front pages and on the news. This would have given the civil rights movement a publicity boost and would become a focus point for politicians, especially now that MLK had an award to show for his and his supporters, hard work. This year also had the political reforms in the law which MLK had hoped for, when President Johnson, a hard-line Southerner, introduced laws which gave an end to the violence and discrimination which had been seen by the American people the year before.
Most of these changes in the poll shown in source F are either due to or are heavily influenced by the media and how events were portrayed to the public. For instance the propaganda films in the sixties would show what to do in the event of a A-bomb attack, this added to fears over safety and security. And the coverage of the Civil rights protests were highlighted by the media by showing the full and unreasonable force used. This footage was seen by the public and as one history book put it, ‘whites who were previously indifferent to the campaign were now sickened by this brutality’. This shows us how the media influenced a population and drove it to think about different matters in a different light.
