Transnational Connections and the Influence of the Mass Media in the Global Sixties (2015)

Undergraduate: Kaitlin Shinn

Faculty Advisor: Donald Reid
Department: Global Studies

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The ¿¿¿long 1960s¿¿¿, a unique period in modern history, was marked by tumultuous uprisings across the globe led by individuals who refused to accept conformity and silence as a response to oppression and imperialism. Much of the pervasiveness of ideologies in the sixties owes itself to increased use of mass media to disseminate knowledge about global events. Utilization of mass media such as film, literature, and periodicals created a sort of ¿¿¿group identity¿¿¿ akin to the nation, a sort of union between consumers ¿¿¿before the same vision, enthralled by a common illusion.¿¿¿ This phenomenon accelerated the current of global change, and movements gained momentum through their visions of one another. In spite of this, due to the static and simplistic nature of these images in the media, over time they often grew increasingly divergent from the context in which they originated.

Radical groups in the sixties viewed themselves as part of a global fabric of revolution, relying largely on the representations in the media to create images of their international counterparts. This is displayed well through the framework of the interaction of the Black Panther Party, specifically in the context of the Panther¿¿¿s Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver and his wife Kathleen, with the post-Independence Algerian state.