1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910466021403321

Autore

Hemmer Nicole

Titolo

Messengers of the right : conservative media and the transformation of American politics / / Nicole Hemmer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : , : University of Pennsylvania Press, , 2016

©2016

ISBN

0-8122-9307-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (337 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Politics and culture in modern America

Disciplina

302.23/0973

Soggetti

Mass media - Political aspects - United States

Conservatism in the press - United States

Press and politics - United States

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Part I. Networks -- Chapter 1. The Outsiders -- Chapter 2. The Outlets -- Chapter 3. The Obstacles -- Part II. Leaders -- Chapter 4. The Movement -- Chapter 5. The Millstone -- Chapter 6. The Muzzle -- Part III. Elections -- Chapter 7. The Purists -- Chapter 8. The Partisans -- Chapter 9. The Pivot -- Part IV. Adaptations -- Chapter 10. The Compromise -- Chapter 11. The Contraction -- Chapter 12. The Comeback -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

From Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to Glenn Beck and Matt Drudge, Americans are accustomed to thinking of right-wing media as integral to contemporary conservatism. But today's well-known personalities make up the second generation of broadcasting and publishing activists. Messengers of the Right tells the story of the little-known first generation.Beginning in the late 1940s, activists working in media emerged as leaders of the American conservative movement. They not only started an array of enterprises-publishing houses, radio programs, magazines, book clubs, television shows-they also built the movement. They coordinated rallies, founded organizations, ran political campaigns, and mobilized voters. While these media activists disagreed



profoundly on tactics and strategy, they shared a belief that political change stemmed not just from ideas but from spreading those ideas through openly ideological communications channels.In Messengers of the Right, Nicole Hemmer explains how conservative media became the institutional and organizational nexus of the conservative movement, transforming audiences into activists and activists into a reliable voting base. Hemmer also explores how the idea of liberal media bias emerged, why conservatives have been more successful at media activism than liberals, and how the right remade both the Republican Party and American news media. Messengers of the Right follows broadcaster Clarence Manion, book publisher Henry Regnery, and magazine publisher William Rusher as they evolved from frustrated outsiders in search of a platform into leaders of one of the most significant and successful political movements of the twentieth century.