The media played a significant role in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. In the past, people could only use newspapers and radio to find out about the news, however, suddenly, most people had televisions in their homes, which allowed them to easily and instantly see live images of events. Because of their growing influence, the media shaped the opinions of many Americans and therefore, having become allies of civil rights, this meant that they were very important in advancing the cause of civil rights. This essay will investigate the extent to which the media played an important role in advancing the cause of civil rights, through the examination of three significant events; the murder of Emmett Till, the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and the Freedom Rides in the South. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Emmett Till was a 14-year-old black teenager from Chicago who was murdered in 1955 while visiting his family in Mississippi. Till was brutally murdered by three white men because he was allegedly flirting with a married white woman. Till's assailants forced him to carry a 75-pound cotton gin fan to the Tallahatchie River where they then stripped him and beat him nearly to death, then gouged out his eyes, shot him in the head and threw him into the river, with his body tied to the fan of the cotton gin. The trial, which was held by an all-white jury in a segregated court in Mississippi, found the two men "not guilty"; this verdict has angered many people across the country. The Emmett Till murder case was perhaps the first large-scale media event of the civil rights movement, and media coverage during the aftermath and trial of the case marked a turning point in the coverage and representation of black people by the white American press. Local and state newspapers helped turn a news event into a powerful symbol. For most Mississippi newspapers, Till's story quickly became a case of undue outside influence, with the NAACP, Mamie Till, black residents of Chicago, and the Northern press all trying to tell Mississippi how to handle its own business, especially as regards justice. and race relations. Houck and Grindy believe that white Mississippians were initially willing to prosecute Emmett Till's killers, but that changed when they began to feel threatened by "unwarranted intrusions from the Northern press"[1], arguing that Mississippi newspapers became deeply defensive after receiving attacks on their own values. This suggests that newspapers had a substantial influence on public opinion in white Mississippi. The language used by newspapers was important in the media's role in promoting the cause of civil rights. The language used by newspapers is often biased in favor of the market they write to, and word choice can influence what the reader sees and how the reader views an event. For example, the white Mississippi press describes Carolyn Bryant as “a beautiful 21-year-old married mother of two”[2]; Houck and Grindy argue that, on the surface, this is innocent, but when paired with the description of Mamie Till, "a somewhat plump 33-year-old divorced mother"[3], this becomes rather sinister and deceptive. The Mississippi press reported the events of Emmett Till's murder in a way that influenced readers toadopt Southern views, which shows that not all aspects of the media advanced the cause of civil rights. Sympathetic images of Till were published on many Mississippi newspaper front pages in the early days of the case, however the use of the words was used to negatively exaggerate the case in the newspapers. The Greenwood Morning Star used the term "Till Rape Attempt Case." [4] to describe the process, transforming Till's actions from a playful wolf whistle to an attempted rape in a matter of weeks, as if trying to justify the murder and address Southerners' fear of interracial sex . In the weeks leading up to the trial, media coverage was enormous, with influential African-American weeklies such as the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier publishing vehement condemnations of Southern injustice. The trial was attended by more than one hundred members of the press from across America and the world. After the trial's conclusion, African American newspapers and magazines, with the support of the white Northern press, called for national protests and boycotts. The real question that remained after the trial was whether or not it was possible for blacks to get justice in Mississippi. The media managed to galvanize the country through reporting on the Emmett Till case. In 1987, the producers of the documentary The Eyes on The Prize marked Emmett Till Death as the beginning of the civil rights movement. The media's role in uncovering the brutal murder helped promote civil rights and produce future activists like Anne Moody and Eldridge Cleaver. Radio was another form of media important in the advancement of the civil rights cause. This media tool was fundamental in the airing of Bob Dylan's song “The Death of Emmett Till”[5], which explicitly described the events of Emmett Till's murder and subsequent trial. The song had a great influence as it was written and performed by Bob Dylan, an already popular folk singer, meaning that its message was conveyed to a huge number of people and as a result there was great awareness of the injustice. The song was very effective in describing the tragic murder of Emmett Till; the use of terms such as "tortured", "screaming", and "bloody red rain" generates sympathy as it paints Till as a helpless victim and evokes a vivid image of the horror he was forced to endure. Bob Dylan intended to instill guilt and shame for people who refused to condemn racial violence and hate crimes such as the death of Emmett Till, which may have therefore encouraged many to begin supporting the cause of civil rights. He ends the song on a more positive note, suggesting that the civil rights movement could be further advanced if people "gave all they [could] give"; this message may have played an important role in furthering the cause of civil rights. Magazines were also an influential form of mass media during the civil rights movement, and one in particular played an important role in reporting the story of Emmett Till's death. An issue of Jet Magazine, published less than a month after the lynching, elicits sympathy through its graphic description of the state in which Till's body was found, for example: "his face was crushed to the bone." The sympathy evoked by the powerful language used in this article may have motivated people to become more involved in the civil rights movement. This sympathy may have been amplified by the graphic images of Till's "battered" corpse used within the article, as they explicitly reveal the horror that Till suffered; also, these imagesthey are placed alongside images of his or her grieving family members, which can induce feelings of empathy in people with children and grandchildren. This empathy may have created a feeling of connection with blacks that many whites had never felt before, and this may have inspired them to come out in support of the civil rights movement. Overall, this article serves to shock and inform its readers, and its effective use of language and imagery, as well as the widespread availability of this form of media, may have meant this article was extremely important in advancing the cause of civil rights. The Till case gave America a stark and inescapable look at racial violence and injustice. Through newspapers, television, magazines, pictures, and radio, media coverage of the Till case played an important role in advancing the cause of civil rights. In May 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas. The court reached a unanimous decision that “separate but equal” public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. The Brown case was a catalyst for the advancement of civil rights, inspiring education reform but also challenging segregation in all sectors of society. The court effectively overturned the infamous 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case that allowed racial segregation under the guise of “separate but equal.” The case made headlines in newspapers and on television across America and the world. In 1957, the NAACP had enrolled nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock High School. However, it is argued that Brown v. Board was one of the least important events of the civil rights movement as far as the media was concerned; Klarman suggests that media coverage of civil rights events such as the Brown case has attracted “little attention”[6] compared to demonstrations that have produced clashes and violence. This suggests that media coverage of the Brown case was not a major factor in advancing the civil rights cause, because Brown did not make Northerners more sympathetic to the movement. Klarman argues that “the percentage of respondents identifying civil rights as the nation's most pressing issue increased after the Montgomery bus boycott, not after Brown”[7], suggesting that lack of press attention or l 'obvious human pain have not created an increase in public attention. However, the Brown case contributed indirectly to the advancement of civil rights as it appealed to people's moral conscience. After the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled against the "separate but equal" mandate, black newspapers and magazines joyfully and proudly reported the decision, hailing it as the most significant event to date for the cause of civil rights. On May 22, 1954, Age magazine reported that hours after the decision was broadcast, area residents were still stunned by the "milestone" they had just experienced in the civil rights movement. This suggests that, for all the jubilation, it was a shock to the monumental unanimous decision. In Atlanta, the Daily World hoped the decision would help set off a chain reaction within the civil rights movement. Newspapers across America reported on the case, but they also reported on the South's reaction, revealing that the unanimous decision was not one that pleased all of America. Many Southerners assumed that if children were in a desegregated environment, they might get to know each other, date, and then potentially get married,which is the strongest taboo in the south. 'Time' magazine reported the words of the governor of Georgia, Marvin Griffin. He is reported to have said that he pledged to keep Georgia's schools segregated "to hell" and swore that blood would flow in the streets before they would allow white children to attend school with black children; this suggests that although the media was an important tool in the advancement of civil rights, reports such as this would not advance the cause of civil rights. Brown vs. Board did not mark the beginning of the modern civil rights movement, but there is no doubt that it was a watershed moment in the fight for racial equality in America. In May 1961, thirteen African American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides campaign; it was a series of bus trips across the American South to protest segregation at interstate bus terminals. The Freedom Riders, recruited by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), attempted to integrate facilities into bus terminals in the Deep South. The group faced enormous amounts of violence from white protesters along the route, but they also drew national and international attention to the civil rights cause. The following months saw hundreds of Freedom Cyclists engage in similar actions. In September 1961, the International Trade Committee issued rules prohibiting segregation in bus and train terminals nationwide. Media coverage of the Freedom Rides during the protests was extensive and extremely important in aiding the cause of civil rights in the United States. The Freedom Rides were successful, in large part, because they were able to engage the media and gain a sympathetic national audience. Photographers and journalists from the black press could accompany travelers on buses. Initial coverage of the Freedom Rides was mixed to strongly negative, with some parts of the media accusing the riders of being outside agitators. It was not until May 14, 1961 that the media began to be important in the advancement of the civil rights cause through its coverage of the Freedom Rides. Footage of a burning bus, photographs of beatings inflicted during the riot, and of James Peck lying in a hospital bed shocked the nation, as they were unlike anything previously seen. Reports of the Freedom Rides in the white Southern press remained highly negative and mocking. Meanwhile, national media coverage had become more favorable in the days following these images. Television was an important form of media that was influential in advancing the cause of civil rights. Not only was television able to project images of the rides and images of the aftermath, but it was also able to broadcast emotional and sympathetic interviews to present the civil rights cause in a positive light to its viewers. This means of communication was fundamental in the transmission of the interviews. with some members of the civil rights movement. These interviews would strengthen the cause of civil rights, and when Jim Peck was interviewed about Freedom Rides on the NBC network's Today Show, he did exactly that. Peck was able to portray the “sympathetic human face”[8] that many Americans had imagined was within the monstrosities of the movement. Peck defended the Freedom Rides to the same audience that had seen him injured in hospital just ten days earlier. The power of television gave the cause the opportunity to portray both sides of the movement and attract audiences it would never have reached without this medium. That is.