Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Knowing O.J.
- Part I Theory
- 1 O.J. and ritual
- 2 O.J. and politics
- Part II News construction
- Part III Audience reception
- Part IV Conclusions
- Appendix 1 Page-one narratives, Los Angeles Times, January 25–October 4, 1995
- Appendix 2 Page-one O.J. narratives, Los Angeles Sentinel, January 25–October 5, 1995
- Appendix 3 Emerging discussion themes, by group, March 30, 1995
- Appendix 4 Emerging discussion themes, by group, August 1, 1995
- Appendix 5 Transcript of Primetime text
- Appendix 6 Transcript of KTLA text
- Appendix 7 Logistic regression of perceptions about Simpson's innocence or guilt on race, gender, education, family income, interviewer race, and perceptions of criminal justice system bias
- Notes
- References
- Index
2 - O.J. and politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Knowing O.J.
- Part I Theory
- 1 O.J. and ritual
- 2 O.J. and politics
- Part II News construction
- Part III Audience reception
- Part IV Conclusions
- Appendix 1 Page-one narratives, Los Angeles Times, January 25–October 4, 1995
- Appendix 2 Page-one O.J. narratives, Los Angeles Sentinel, January 25–October 5, 1995
- Appendix 3 Emerging discussion themes, by group, March 30, 1995
- Appendix 4 Emerging discussion themes, by group, August 1, 1995
- Appendix 5 Transcript of Primetime text
- Appendix 6 Transcript of KTLA text
- Appendix 7 Logistic regression of perceptions about Simpson's innocence or guilt on race, gender, education, family income, interviewer race, and perceptions of criminal justice system bias
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
In the previous chapter, you will recall, I proposed a theoretical model for understanding the nature of media events like the “Trial of the Century.” A diagram of the model (see figure 9, chapter 1) graphically depicted six discrete factors – political projects, O.J. narratives, intertextual memory, individual decoding, social network discussions, and negotiated decoding – that interact with one another in ways that periodically lead to galvanizing foci of public interest and investment. This chapter zeroes in on the first of these factors, political projects, and the role it played in the O.J. Simpson double murder case.
Politics, of course, literally refers to the gaining, using, and losing of power. And if we understand power as the ability – either through coercion or consent – to get people to act against their will, or as simply occupying a structural location that facilitates deriving benefit from the actions of others, then we get that much closer to comprehending the social significance of political projects. Inspired by Michael Omi and Howard Winant's (1986, 1994) work on “racial projects,” I understand “political projects” to be discourses that are (re)activated in order to simultaneously offer a common-sense explanation for political dynamics and to privilege certain political interests above others so that power might be redistributed (or its current distribution reinforced).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- O. J. Simpson Facts and FictionsNews Rituals in the Construction of Reality, pp. 49 - 84Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999