Abstract

This independent study examines the Boston Busing crisis and the ways in which different levels of media covered the event. The Boston Busing crisis was a school desegregation event which took place in Boston prior to the start of the 1974 school year. The Boston busing crisis provides for an interesting example of school desegregation due to the fact it took place within the North and happened twenty some years after the Brown V. Board decision. This study examines the ways in which the national media, local media, and the Black press covered and reported on the event of the crisis. Each level of media brought with it a different type of reporting. These different reporting techniques led to very different narratives surrounding the busing crisis. Each level of the media covered the crisis through establishing various frameworks within their coverage that appealed to their specific audiences. These differing frameworks provided by the national and Black press would playout on the local level. Local media was caught in the middle of these frameworks and by attempting to play both sides provided its readers with two competing truths surrounding the Boston busing crisis. These new journalistic approaches that came of age during the busing crisis, would come to shape the type of coverage portrayed in modern day news media.

Advisor

Roche, Jeff

Department

History

Disciplines

Civil Rights and Discrimination | Education | Law and Race

Keywords

Boston, Race, Civil rights movement, Media, Busing, riots, education, Northern Jim Crow.

Publication Date

2020

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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© Copyright 2020 Jacob P. Bueter