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Murder, the media, and the politics of public feelings : remembering Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. / Jennifer Petersen

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

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Object Details

Author
Petersen, Jennifer 1970-
Subject
Shepard, Matthew -1998
Byrd, James -1998
Contents
Introduction: media, emotion, and the public sphere -- Mourning Matthew Shepard: grief, shame, and the public sphere -- "Hate is not a Laramie value": translating feelings into law -- The murder of James Byrd Jr.: the political pedagogy of melodrama -- The visibility of suffering, injustice, and the law -- Conclusion: feeling in the public sphere
Summary
In 1998, the horrific murders of Matthew Shepard- a gay man living in Laramie, Wyoming- and James Byrd Jr.- an African American man dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas- provoked a passionate public outrage. The intense media coverage of the murders made moments of violence based in racism and homophobia highly visible and which eventually led to the passage of The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009. The role the media played in cultivating, shaping, and directing the collective emotional response toward these crimes is the subject of this gripping new book by Jennifer Petersen. Tracing the emotional exchange from news stories to the creation of law, Petersen calls for an approach to media and democratic politics that takes into account the role of affect in the political and legal life of the nation. -- Back Cover
2011
C2011
Type
Books
Physical description
viii, 210 p. ; 23 cm
Place
United States
Wyoming
Laramie
Smithsonian Libraries
Topic
Hate crimes--Public opinion
Gays--Crimes against
African Americans--Crimes against
African American men--Violence against
Racism
Homophobia
Mass media and public opinion
Mass media and gays
Mass media and race relations
Mass media--Influence
Record ID
siris_sil_987904
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0

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