Jeremy D. Popkin
Published: 1995
Total Pages: 262
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Jeffrey Wasserstrom, taking the opposite view, argues that the extensive attention paid to the effects of worldwide television coverage of the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square masks the fact that the Chinese students were essentially reworking protest rituals rooted in their country's history and culture long before the modern media era. Owen Johnson, in his essay on the Czechoslovak press during the "Velvet Revolution," likewise downplays the role of the media. The remaining contributors - Jeffrey Brooks, Jack R. Censer, Tim Harris, Thomas C. Leonard, Stephen R. Mackinnon, Michael Mendle, Jeffery A. Smith, Jonathan Sperber, Mark W. Summers - focus on pamphlet literature, newspapers, political cartoons, and the modern electronic media. Together, their wide-ranging views form a balanced and perceptive examination of the impact of the media on the making of history.