PUSHING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ONTO THE NATIONAL AGENDA

Image: 'MLK' 
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In this chapter we see how the presence of broadcast journalism helped to push the civil rights movement onto the national agenda. Slavery had been outlawed in 1950, but that didn’t mean that racism had been. This chapter takes us from the initial attempts to integrate African Americans into white schools, through to congress passing both The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Voting Rights Act of 1965.

One of Streitmatter’s main points in this chapter is to convey that in order for the nation to realize what was going on, and to want to bring a stop to it, there had to be more than just words. Citizens had to see with their own eyes the extreme measures the police force, as well as white civilians, were taking against innocent African Americans.

When something is in print, you can skip the article that is toO “real” for you so you don’t feel bad for doing nothing about it. But when you are watching the nightly news with your family and you see the videos of police beating a nonthreatening middle-aged black woman, or the tiny caskets of children who were killed because of the color of their skin, or a 15-year-old black girl being heckled for trying to go to school, you can’t skip that. You can change the channel, but you won’t be able to get those images out of your head, and if you are a sane and kind individual, you’ll start losing sleep at night until change is made.

What would a chapter about the Civil Rights Movement be without the mention of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? It would be like a jelly donut with no jelly inside. And while Mr. King helped to change the way African Americans were being treated, it was because of television news that his powerful words not just touched a few people, but rang loud and clear through every T.V. in America.

I chose this chapter because it reminds me of what I should be trying to do when I become a famous Broadcast News Journalist (because you know its going to happen J). Television, or maybe I should say the internet/you-tube, have become many peoples sole source of information and news. My career goal in life is to replace Guiliana Rancic as head E! News Correspondent, but after reading this chapter it reminded me that journalism isn’t about which celebrities are dating each other, or which teen starlet just got a tattoo. Journalism is about providing people with the information they need to lead free and self-governing lives. I obviously already knew that because it is basically our class motto, but to see that put into action and then see what can be accomplished through journalism, inspires me to write for change, not for gossip.

I wish I could say “I can’t imagine what it must have been like to grow up during the Civil Rights Movement,” but the fact of the matter is almost 50 years later human beings are still being denied their civil rights, and are being punished when they fight for their rights.

An obvious comparison is Occupy Wall Street. The behavior of the police against innocent protestors, who are just exercising their rights in accoradance with the first amendment, has all been documented and broadcast to the entire world. To see police hitting young women and assaulting civilians with pepper spray makes you realize how far we still have to come as a country. Luckily we have the freedom to speak our mind, some countries do not.