Screening the Los Angeles 'Riots': Race, Seeing, and Resistance (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies) - Hardcover

Hunt, Darnell M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521570875 ISBN 13: 9780521570879

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Screening the Los Angeles 'Riots' explores the meanings one news organization found in the landmark events of 1992, as well as those made by fifteen groups of viewers in the events' aftermath. Combining ethnographic and experimental research, Darnell M. Hunt explores how race shapes both the construction of television news and viewers' understandings of it. In the process, he engages with longstanding debates about the power of television to shape our thoughts versus our ability to resist.

About this title

From the Back Cover

On April 29, 1992, the "worst riots of the century" (Los Angeles Times) erupted. Television newsworkers tried frantically to keep up with what was happening on the streets while, around the city, nation and globe, viewers watched intently as leaders, participants, and fires flashed across their television screens. Screening the Los Angeles "riots" zeroes in on the first night of these events, exploring in detail the meanings one news organization found in them, as well as those made by fifteen groups of viewers in the events' aftermath. Combining ethnographic and quasi-experimental methods, Darnell M. Hunt's account reveals how race shapes both television's construction of news and viewers' understandings of it. He engages with the longstanding debates about the power of television to shape our thoughts versus our ability to resist, and concludes with implications for progressive change.

Review

"...Hunt's study will undoubtably become a definitive work on hegemony theory and the riots." Jane L. Twomey, Journal of Communication

"...synthesizes important insights from British Cultural Studies, the sociology of race, social psychology, and ethnomethodology." Comunication Abstract

"...a highly original, insightful, and essential piece of research." Contemporary Sociology

"Darnell Hunt's noteworthy study presents an informed and detailed analysis of audience reaction to television news coverage of the civil rebellion in South Central L.A. that ultimately led to the death of 51 citizens, hundreds of injuries, and the destruction of more than a $1 billion in property." Dennis W. Mazzocco, Critical Sociology

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0521570875
• ISBN 13: 9780521570879
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 332