Broadcasting Equality: Media Narratives and the Rise of Civil Rights

Alex Armand, Paul Atwell, Joseph Gomes, Giuseppe Musillo and Yannik Schenk

No 18207, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We document the influence of media narratives in counteracting racial prejudice by exploring the emergence of socially inclusive narratives in post-WWII U.S. media. We exploit an unprecedented experiment that created exogenous exposure to these narratives: in 1946, amid widespread racial divisions, the popular children’s radio series The Adventures of Superman suddenly decided to promote equality by reframing its fictional stories. We find that exposure to these narratives significantly contributed to the advancement of civil rights in subsequent decades. Specifically, we uncover increased support for civil rights and civil rights organizations, deeper racial assimilation, and more progressive political positions.

Keywords: Mass media; Narrative; Radio; Segregation; Ku Klux Klan; Superman; Intolerance; Civil rights; Racism; Protest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D7 D83 I24 J15 L82 N32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-06
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18207 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:18207

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18207

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().