A2 Personal Study! Help please!

My question is 'To What Extent Did Developments In Cinema, Radio and Television in the 1960s Influence Social Change in the USA?' and Im focusing on Civil Rights and the Vietnam War.. but I'm having trouble coming up with ideas to include and a good structure to use?
How would other people go about answering that question?
Thank you!!
xx

Reply 1

Barry Scott

Why the hell did you pick that?

Reply 2

TimeLady

11

You could talk about the opposite; as in how didn't it influence the social change. Have a paragraph talking about other major events/developments that contributed to social change. That will allow you to compare "to what extent" cinema/radio/TV influenced it. You can't do that by only talking about the media :smile:

Hope that helps!!

Reply 3

pinksparkles2

OP

2

matt54

Why the hell did you pick that?

Thanks =| That was great help..
Because I'm doing media and anthropology at uni. So thought it would be a good idea to kind of include them in my coursework.
And it interests me. Far mor interesting that ancient britain or europe, politics or boring war stuff.
xx

Reply 4

FunkyIguana

matt54

Why the hell did you pick that?

Off the top of my head, there were quite a few memorable television/radio broadcasts in the US during the 60's. JFK assassination, moon landing, Martin Luther King dream speech. Perhaps tie these specific examples to the wider global context (Cold War, civil rights etc.)?

Reply 5

Dionysus

15

Well I'd help you but I slept through my USA lectures.

Reply 6

Barry Scott

To what extent were Malcolm X and the subsequent Black Power Movement the ‘Evil Twin’ of the Civil Rights Movement in the late twentieth century in the United States of America?

That's my question...I am lost, I hate history now...

Reply 7

Quinion

10

As one idea (might think of more but it's 1 in the morning and my brain isn't fully in gear), you ought to talk about what makes TV so different from radio. The answer is very obvious, but it's essential to your answer: communication of images, not just sounds. Images were broadcast from the South where non-violent protesting blacks were assaulted by OTT white authorities. This hit a lot of people pretty hard. Likewise with Vietnam - selective images from across the world of an overly brutal and thus increasingly unpopular war. To be able to see these things as a family in your own home, as opposed to selective newsreels in the cinemas, was radical in itself, and simply fuelled the politics of 60s social protest.

Like I said, it's a simple point, but you should keep it throughout your essay.

6,000 words on that question may prove to be a struggle, that's my only concern. Use as many primary sources as you can, they are in abundance over the internet. Speeches are a good start - analyse Martin Luther King's rhetoric, amongst others'. You might want to investigate the relationship between the American society and the Kennedy / Johnson / Nixon administrations. How did these governments feel about the radical new application of national media? Were they able to use it for themselves, and if so how? The 60s in America were noted for "the politics of protest" - this means there are two or more sides to each story. Make sure they are all covered.

Be careful about your understanding of "social change" as you've laid it out in the title. Do you mean federal laws affecting social policy, or do you mean general public attitudes and values? Decide for yourself, make sure it's clear within your introduction and don't stray too far from it at any point.

Reply 8

ramzwj

12

Sorry, my personal study was on Louis the Pious, which i think was a few years earlier. I would make the point that rebellion began to take place through music. The world revolved around music, music television etc. The birth of the music video, in fact (The Beatles) Political songs were rife (Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix Experience, the emergence of Randy Newman) This began the era in which who you were was classified by the music you listened to.

Reply 9

--

3

matt54

To what extent were Malcolm X and the subsequent Black Power Movement the ‘Evil Twin’ of the Civil Rights Movement in the late twentieth century in the United States of America?

That's my question...I am lost, I hate history now...

That's quite an easy question, read any books on the civil rights movement and you'll get plenty of info on it. It wasn't the 'evil twin' but simply a more realistic representation of how the northern, urban, African-American population felt, something the southern movement was increasingly unable to do.

A2 Personal Study! Help please!

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you