Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Knowing O.J.
- Part I Theory
- Part II News construction
- Part III Audience reception
- 7 Raced ways of seeing O.J.
- 8 Raced ways of seeing O.J. – revisited
- 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
7 - Raced ways of seeing O.J.
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
- Part II News construction
- Part III Audience reception
- 7 Raced ways of seeing O.J.
- 8 Raced ways of seeing O.J. – revisited
- 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
Reality is not given, not humanly existent, independent of language and towards which language stands as a pale refraction. Rather reality is brought into existence, is produced, by communication; that is, by the construction, apprehension, and utilization of symbolic forms.
(Carey 1975, p. 12)Despite an abundance of twists and turns, the road paved with literature on mass media continues to lead to one of two places: to a place where media are assumed to be powerful relative to audience members, or to a place where the opposite view is held to be true. At the former place, scholars argue that media are successful at injecting hegemonic ideas directly into the minds of rather passive audience members (cf. Adorno 1991), or that any audience opposition to specific ideas is in the long run overwhelmed by immersion in a world shaped by dominant ideologies (cf. Althusser 1971). At the latter place, scholars counter that audience members are active interpreters who often overlook or consciously subvert the meanings intended by the creators of media texts (Klapper 1960; Blumler and Katz 1974; Fiske 1987). At stake in this ongoing debate, of course, is our understanding of the degree to which media actually construct “reality.”
As Carey (1975) notes in the above quote, what we perceive as “reality” is shaped by an ongoing process of human communication. The ritualistic nature of this process ultimately points to the precariousness of “reality,” the degree to which its coordinates must continually be negotiated and (re)affirmed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- O. J. Simpson Facts and FictionsNews Rituals in the Construction of Reality, pp. 181 - 215Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999