Publication Date
2025
Presentation Length
Poster/Gallery presentation
College
Interdisciplinary Studies & Global Education
Department
Honors Program
Student Level
Undergraduate
SPARK Category
Scholarship
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Mary Ellen Pethel
SPARK Session
Session Name: Poster: Belmont Social Justice Collaborative
Presentation Type
Poster
Summary
Public memory serves as the collective public consciousness – how a group of people remember a historical narrative and thus how they interpret and interact with their current environment. Journalism and news reporting plays a pivotal role in the creation of public memory. This study will analyze the differences in reporting between two Nashville-based newspapers, The Nashville Banner and The Tennessean, and how their reporting shaped public memory in Nashville. These publications are crucial to the Nashville community and how the public is informed. To properly conduct this research with narrow enough scope to get accurate results, this study will focus on the years 1960 – 1961, highlighting the sit-in movement and freedom rides that Nashville civil rights activists organized, as well as other important events. The results of this study will aid in understanding how Nashville reckons with its racial past and how journalists can be cognizant of their impact both in current public opinion and historical public memory, thus learning how to be intentional in utilizing that power.
Recommended Citation
Cannon, Katherine E., "ESTABLISHING THE NARRATIVE – A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF NASHVILLE NEWSPAPER REPORTING DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA" (2025). SPARK Symposium Presentations. 64.
https://repository.belmont.edu/spark_presentations/64
Included in
Cultural History Commons, Political History Commons, Public History Commons, Social History Commons
