Lecture Notes: Media framing, collective memory, and the 1963 March on Washington

The March on Washington (1963): Key Facts and Context

• Event discussed: the civil rights march to Washington, often remembered for Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech.
• Attendees: estimated crowd of $200{,}000$ people. The transcript asks, “How many people were there? … 200,000?” and revisits that figure multiple times.
• Primary and evolving goals:
  • Initially connected to jobs and economic opportunity for Americans in the post–Great Depression era, with laws and acts in the 1940s addressing employment discrimination and economic opportunity.
  • Over time, the march became a powerful symbol of civil rights and a broader demand for freedom from discrimination, including voting rights and equal protection.
• Key speech:
  • Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech is highlighted as a defining moment.
  • Length: King’s speech itself was about $16$ minutes, but the event carried broader significance beyond the single speech.
• Framing of the event in media:
  • Headlines and coverage varied: emphasis on crowd size (e.g., “200,000 march,” “thousands march in Washington”) versus emphasis on leadership and the speech or the broader goals.
  • The framing influenced which aspects of the event entered collective memory (scope vs. content).
• Historical context and evolution of the movement:
  • The march built on earlier civil rights efforts and labor-related activism addressing jobs and discrimination.
  • The movement interconnected with voting rights and other civil rights goals.
• Practical exercise mentioned:
  • A resource (PowerPoint) is suggested for researching how newspapers framed the event for an essay, emphasizing how framing shapes memory.
• The teacher mentions a few concrete prompts:
  • Students are asked to recall other historical events they learned about from the media, e.g., 9/11, and to discuss how media framing shapes memory.
• Scene-setting questions used to engage students:
  • What was the purpose of the march? Who attended? What did the speech emphasize? How does perception of the event change with framing and memory?

Present-mindedness and Collective Memory

• Present-mindedness definition (as discussed):
  • Imposing present views or perceptions of the current moment onto the past, thereby altering our recollection of history.
• Collective memory:
  • How groups remember major events as a shared narrative, which can diverge over time depending on perspectives and sources.
• The USC Sunday example:
  • A relatively small percentage of USC students were actually present at a local event, yet many have a sense of what happened.
  • How do people form that sense? Through alerts, information, and especially social media.
• Role of information channels:
  • Social media, real-time alerts, and rapid sharing shape collective memory but can also distort it due to speed, bias, and incomplete information.
• Media’s role in memory:
  • Before social media, newspapers and television framed events, shaping memory through the dissemination and framing of information.
  • As technology evolved, memory has become more fragmented because different sources frame events differently.
• Mass media framing and collective memory:
  • The same event can be remembered differently across communities and regions due to different media frames and emphasis.

Media Framing: What Framing Is and Why It Matters

• Framing concept (as defined in class):
  • Framing is presenting what you want people to focus on or what you want them not to notice.
• Examples from the March on Washington visuals:
  • Some images focus on individuals; most coverage emphasizes the large crowd and the magnitude of the march.
• Headline framing examples from different papers (as discussed):
  • “200,000 race demonstrators”
  • “Leaders march on Washington”
  • “200,000 demand civil rights”
  • “Thousands march in Washington”
  • “Demonstrations, they were only 200,000 march”
• Implication of framing:
  • Framing can emphasize the scope (how many people) or the content (the speech and the ideals).
  • The choice of framing can shift audience attention to different aspects of the event.
• Event duration and framing:
  • The crowd’s time on-site can be framed as lasting for hours or days (a Woodstock-like sense of a perpetual, ongoing moment), whereas King’s speech lasted $16$ minutes.
• Framing and historical essays:
  • If writing a smaller essay, newspapers are a rich resource for framing and perspectives on the event.
• Framing and memory across regions:
  • Different regional outlets (e.g., Afro American publications, New York Times, state newspapers in Mississippi, etc.) may emphasize different elements (speech, audience size, or the rights promised) affecting regional collective memory.

The Role of Mass Media in Memory and Truth

• Media as a conduit for historical memory:
  • In earlier decades, memory remained relatively uniform across large groups due to more centralized media.
  • With digital media, memory fragments as people rely on various sources that frame events differently.
• Reliability and bias:
  • The question of how factual a media account is, and which sources to trust, becomes increasingly complex in the modern digital landscape.
• The responsibility of media to be unbiased:
  • Journalists aim to present facts and offer multiple sides when possible, but trust hinges on source reputation and perceived integrity.
• The role of the audience:
  • Audiences matter because they preserve, archive, and propagate memory; without an audience, the historical record would not persist.
• The impact of framing on memory:
  • The way a newspaper frames a story influences what the audience believes happened and what they remember later.

Trust, Bias, and Unbiased Journalism

• How trust is built:
  • Reputation of sources, especially longstanding and locally trusted outlets (e.g., state or regional newspapers) contributes to credibility.
  • The example given: a local paper reporting a car crash with a specific death toll is more likely to be trusted than sensational social media posts with inflated numbers.
• Social media versus traditional journalism:
  • Social media is a powerful tool but is not inherently journalism; it can be used for both credible reporting and misinformation.
  • The lack of universal fact-checking on social platforms raises concerns about bias and reliability.
• The problem of mis- and disinformation:
  • Misinterpretations or deliberate misinformation can shape memory if not corrected.
• The role of media framing across outlets:
  • Different outlets frame the same event differently due to editorial choices, political leanings, or geographic audience considerations.
• The need for critical media consumption:
  • Consume across multiple outlets, verify with reputable sources, and maintain healthy skepticism about eye-catching or sensational content.
• Trust criteria in practice:
  • Trust is associated with source reputation, corroboration across independent outlets, and consistency with established facts.

Journalism vs Social Media: What Counts as Journalism?

• What is journalism?
  • A profession centered on collecting, verifying, and disseminating information to the public with a commitment to accuracy and fairness.
  • Ideally involves presenting facts and, where relevant, multiple sides of an issue.
• Social media’s relationship to journalism:
  • Social media can disseminate journalistic content and can also be used irresponsibly to spread misinformation.
  • It is not automatically journalism, but it can augment or bypass traditional reporting depending on how it’s used.
• Economics and structure of media:
  • Media organizations are financially driven; attention economy and monetization influence what gets coverage and how it’s framed.
  • Platforms like TikTok and Instagram monetize attention (likes, follows) and can drive sensational trends to maximize engagement.
  • Traditional outlets balance breaking news, audience engagement, and revenue streams; economic incentives shape editorial choices and framing.
• Newsroom structure and framing decisions:
  • Some outlets follow classic news structures (5 Ws: Who, What, Where, When, Why, How) with details following the lede.
  • Others design pages to maximize dwell time, which can influence where important information appears on the page.
• The ethics and responsibility of journalism in practice:
  • The goal is to inform the public with factual information and to provide context, including diverse perspectives when appropriate.
  • Flaws exist; some outlets may intentionally or unintentionally bias coverage; critical consumption and cross-checking are essential.

Practical Implications: Why This Matters Today

• Media literacy and civic impact:
  • Understanding how framing and memory work helps people critically evaluate current events and avoid misperceptions.
  • People’s knowledge about past events shapes policy preferences and civic behavior.
• The audience’s role:
  • Audiences care about historical memory because it informs the future; public interest sustains archives and memory practices.
  • Knowledge can be seen as a form of currency in society, driving conversations and decisions.
• Ethical considerations:
  • Journalists and media outlets bear ethical responsibilities to verify facts, share diverse perspectives, and correct errors when they occur.
  • In the age of social media, individuals must exercise caution, corroborate information, and resist spreading unverified claims.
• Real-world relevance and critical questions to ask:
  • How does a given outlet frame a historical event today? What aspects are foregrounded or obscured?
  • What is the economic motive behind a given piece of reporting, and how might that influence framing or selection of stories?
  • Whom does the audience trust, and why? How can one assess credibility in a crowded information landscape?
• Anecdotes and analogies referenced:
  • The Woodstock-like perception of a large, enduring crowd vs. a short, focused speech can shape what people remember about an event.
  • The 9/11 memory example illustrates how responders and the visual framing of a crisis contribute to collective memory and trust in media and institutions.

Key Figures, Terms, and Concepts (LaTeX-formatted)

• Crowd size reference: $N = 200{,}000$ attendees.
• King’s speech length: $T = 16\;\text{minutes}.$
• Year of the march: $1963.$
• Color-coded alert system (described in the discussion): a color grading scale with values described as “five to 7.5,” where colder colors indicated lower alert levels and red indicated the highest level of alert. Note: this reflects the speaker's description rather than a standard publicly used system.
• Framing: presenting what you want audiences to focus on; foregrounding certain details while backgrounding others.
• Present-mindedness: the tendency to impose present-day understandings onto past events, skewing interpretation of history.
• Collective memory: shared memory of a historical event held by a group, which can diverge across communities and time due to framing and media influence.
• Trust and bias concepts:
  • Reputation-based trust in established outlets (e.g., local/state newspapers).
  • The risk of misinformation and disinformation on social media.
  • The importance of cross-source verification and skepticism when evaluating factual claims.
• Economics of media:
  • Attention economy: platforms monetize user attention, impacting what content is produced and promoted.
  • Structural incentives in journalism organizations influence editorial choices and framing.

Hypothetical Scenarios and Connections to Broader Themes

• If you were to write a smaller essay on the March on Washington, you might compare framing across outlets:
  • A paper emphasizing crowd size vs. a paper highlighting the key themes of the speech and its political significance.
• Hypothetical scenario: Imagine a future event where a large crowd gathers but social media quickly disperses or distorts information. Consider how different outlets would frame the event and how that framing would affect collective memory.
• Connection to foundational principles:
  • The need for evidence-based reporting aligns with civic education and democratic participation.
  • Understanding media bias and framing supports an informed citizenry capable of evaluating public affairs.

Quick Reference: Discussion Prompts and Takeaways

• Why did 200,000 people go to Washington? What were the immediate and long-term aims?
• How does framing change how we remember events? Compare crowd-size framing to speech-focused framing.
• How has the rise of social media changed collective memory compared with earlier mass media?
• What makes a source trustworthy? How does reputation, corroboration, and editorial process influence credibility?
• Is social media journalism? Why or why not? How can social media be used responsibly in journalism?
• How do economic incentives shape media content and framing? What is the impact of the attention economy on public discourse?
• What ethical responsibilities do journalists have when reporting on sensitive historical events?