ABSTRACT
Glance backward for a m om ent to the decades of the modern civil rights era.
Then as now, media-especially television-operated as an important arena
of cultural struggle. Television was at once the object of criticism by the lead
ers of the civil rights and black power movements and yet, because of televi
sion many of the aims and struggles of those m ovem ents became widely
known. For exam ple, the Southern Christian Leadership Council and the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com m ittee used the media-mainly tele
vision news-as an important resource to mobilize moral and financial sup
port for their causes and to focus national attention on various protest
campaigns. And even though organizations like the Black Panther Party and
the Nation of Islam received largely negative coverage, these organizations
nevertheless tried to use press and media coverage to illustrate the complex
strategies and machinations at work to contain and neutralize their efforts.
