Overview

We can trace many important strategic decisions to compelling official fictions such as Kennedy's ""missile gap"" and Reagan's ""window of vulnerability."" Over the years, antinuclear movements have had mixed success debunking these fictions, raising public consciousness, and reorienting government policy.  Andrew Rojecki explores links between nuclear arms policy and the visibility of opposition groups in the media. He pays particular interest to two cycles of protest: the test ban movement of the Eisenhower and the Kennedy administrations and the Reagan-era nuclear freeze movement. As Rojecki shows, space devoted to the opposition as well as the quality of the coverage varied widely from the first to the second period. The change reflected different climates of public opinion and foreign policy but also a subtle shift in political culture that undermined the legitimacy of citizen protest. As the rationalized policymaking of government agencies, think tanks, and university departments increasingly restricted public debate, the potential for citizens to influence nuclear politics became more circumscribed while nuclear weapons continued to proliferate.

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Reviews

An excellent review of public policy on nuclear weapons, media coverage of peace movements' efforts to defuse them, and government and media efforts to pre-empt activists' roles... Rojecki's position is well articulated and documented... Well written, thorough, accessible, and well worth reading. -- Bill Israel, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly A very useful study, opening the door to public understanding of how the communications media responded to one of the major citizens' campaigns of modern times. -- ISIS Offers a well-documented and carefully crafted study of the pivotal role that the news media play in the success or failure of popular political movements... Though many of the ideas here are not new, Rojecki brings them together in a fresh and thought-provoking manner. -- Pamela A. Brown, Journalism History A very useful study, opening the door to public understanding of how the communications media responded to one of the major citizens' campaigns of modern times. -- Lawrence S. Wittner, ISIS ADVANCE PRAISE This very important study gives us a thoughtful treatment of the way American mass media outlets cover dissenters and dissenting ideas. -David S. Meyer, author of A Winter of Discontent: The Nuclear Freeze and American Politics

The book will be required reading for all scholars who study social movements and media. Its findings add a great deal to our understanding of how the news constructs the political world. --Regina G. Lawrence An excellent review of public policy on nuclear weapons, media coverage of peace movements' efforts to defuse them, and government and media efforts to pre-empt activists' roles. . . . Rojecki's position is well articulated and documented. . . . Well written, thorough, accessible, and well worth reading. --Bill Israel, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly Offers a well-documented and carefully crafted study of the pivotal role that the news media play in the success or failure of popular political movements. . . . Though many of the ideas here are not new, Rojecki brings them together in a fresh and thought-provoking manner. --Pamela A. Brown, Journalism History A very useful study, opening the door to public understanding of how the communications media responded to one of the major citizens' campaigns of modern times. --Lawrence S. Wittner, ISIS

Author Information

Andrew Rojecki is an associate professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of America and the Politics of Insecurity and coauthor of The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America.

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