Peekskill, U.S.A.: A case of news media frames, race, and politics in early-Cold War America

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar I

Abstract

Mainstream and African American press coverage of the 1949 Peekskill riots is examined via discourse analysis. This coverage is of interest given the intersections of politics and race that made Paul Robeson a unique site for the physical and ideological violence encouraged by anti-Communist sentiment. Drawing on public sphere theory and framing theory, this study seeks to understand how newsmakers, catering to differing publics with different social understandings, conceptualized Robeson and the violence at Peekskill.

Author

• Sarah Jackson, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities