The Battle of Blair Mountain and the News: The Mainstream Press and Class Conflict in 20th Century Appalachia

• In Event: Media Forms as Forms of Conflict: History in the Making

Abstract

The following is an inquiry into the events and newspaper coverage of the 1921 “Battle of Blair Mountain” in West Virginia. The ideological forms of anti-radical, “common sense thinking” towards conflicts of labor and capital on behalf of the coverage of the New York Times and Washington Post respectively are analyzed. The study shows that culturally hegemonic, class-based ideological assumptions were the driving forces behind mainstream views and subsequent coverage of the miners’ revolt.

Authors

• Matthew Ross, U of South Carolina

• Anmol Kalsi, U of South Carolina