Murder, the Media, and the Politics of Public Feelings: Remembering Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. [Paperback]

In 1998, the horrific murders of Matthew Sheparda gay man living in Laramie, Wyomingand James Byrd Jr.an African American man dragged to his death in Jasper, Texasprovoked a passionate public outrage. The intense media coverage of the murders made moments of violence based in racism and homophobia highly visible and which eventually led to the passage of The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009. The role the media played in cultivating, shaping, and directing the collective emotional response toward these crimes is the subject of this gripping new book by Jennifer Petersen. Tracing the emotional exchange from news stories to the creation of law, Petersen calls for an approach to media and democratic politics that takes into account the role of affect in the political and legal life of the nation.

Read anexcerptfrom the book

Marshaling public emotions into political action

Jennifer Petersen is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. Her work has appeared in numerous journals includingMedia, Culture & SocietyandCritical Studies in Media Communication.

Petersen grounds her study in a wide array of literature about topics including the ethics of mediating suffering, masculinity, gender, class, melodrama, liberalism, the public sphere, imagined communities, reason, and emotion. . . . Graduate students interested in cultural studies, gender and queer studies, and/or advocacy may find Petersen's book useful.

Petersen makes use of an intriguing thesis and presents an insightful source for journalism and broadcasting students. July 2011

Petersen offers an impressive reading of media discourses illustrating the value of public feelings and how they can become animating forces in the production of civic action.

...engrossing and expertly-argued lƒ-