The Media and the Kennedy Assassination: the Social Construction of Reality Ross Frank Ralston Iowa State University
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Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1999 The media and the Kennedy assassination: the social construction of reality Ross Frank Ralston Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Journalism Studies Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Sociology Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Ralston, Ross Frank, "The media and the Kennedy assassination: the social construction of reality " (1999). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 12478. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/12478 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. 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Miller Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1999 Copyright © Ross Frank Ralston, 1999. All rights reserved. UMI Number 9950114 Copyright 1999 by Ralston, Ross Frank All rights reserved. UMI ® UMI Microform9950114 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17. United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. 80x1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ii Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation of Ross Frank Ralston has met the dissertation requirements of Iowa State University Signature was redacted for privacy. Major Professor Signature was redacted for privacy. the Major Program Signature was redacted for privacy. For the Qmduate Co liege iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF HGURES ABSTRACT CHAPTER L INTRODUCTION I Two Versions of History 3 Version One 3 Version Two 3 Research Problem 3 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 5 InstitutionaliTation 6 Reification 6 Legitimations 7 Elite Inevitability 9 Boundary Maintenance 11 Social Construction and Hegemony 12 Reification—^JFK's Murder in Textbooks 15 Claims 19 Social Construction of Reality and Media 21 Perspectives on Media Content 24 Mirror Approach 24 Market Approach 25 Fourth Estate 29 Hegemony 33 CHAPTER 3. METHODS 39 Lasswell's Method to Study Media 39 Lasswell's Elements of Media 40 Research Question 42 Emergence 43 CHAPTER 4. CONTENT ANALYSIS OF TIME/LIFE 50 Life, October 2, 1964 — Release of Warren Report and Version One 54 Time, October 2, 1964 — Release of Warren Report and Version One 56 Time, September 16,1996 57 r/we, November 11, 1996 57 r/me, November 25, 1996 60 Life, November 25, 1996 61 The Anomaly 61 The Fate of the Zapruder Film 64 IV Post Watergate 66 Time, October 19, 1975 66 r/me, November 24, 1975 68 Time, 1977 75 House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) 78 r/me, January 4, 1979 78 Life, 1983 79 Time, November 28, 1988 81 Time, June 28, 1993 84 Life, September 1998 85 CHAPTER 5. CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CBS NEWS 87 Watchdog Function 88 1967 Documentary Program 88 The Rifle Test 88 The Single-Bullet Theory 90 The Fatal Head Shot 93 Johnson's Doubts 94 Post Watergate 95 1975 Documentary Program 95 1988 Documentary Program 102 1992 Documentary Program 102 1993 Doctraientaiy Program 106 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION 115 Surveillance and Correlation 116 Strange Odyssey of the Zapruder Film 119 Cultural Gatekeeping 120 Dual Nuts and Gatekeeping 121 Elite Boundary Maintenance — The Co-existence of Fourth Estate and 122 Hegemony Hegemony and Cognitive Dissonance 130 APPENDIX A. EXHIBITS 132 APPENDED B. CODEBOOK 172 APPENDDCC. ELEMENTS OF MEDL^ PERSPECTIVES—TRANSMISSION 185 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 190 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 199 V LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Lasswell approach to analyzing media 40 Figure 2. Important years of Time/Life publications regardmg the JFK assassination 44 Figure 3. Emergence as a method of discovery 46 Figure 4. Boundary maintenance/co-existence of hegemony and Fourth Estate 124 Figures. Media perspectives 188 vi ABSTRACT The research problem was to take a major political event in American history—the John F. Kennedy assassination—explore major media coverage of the event, and then examine media construction of social issues. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy has two oflBcial versions in our nation's history. The Warren-Ford-Dulles Commission came to the conclusion that, without assistance, a man in a building shot a man in a car. In 1979, pursuant to post-Watergate cynicism in government, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded there was a conspiracy and a second gunman fired from a different direction. However, high school textbooks have reified only the first version of history—^that of a single lone assassin. A content analysis of CBS and Time-Life coverage is made using Lasswell's methodology of surveillance, correlation, and transmission. CBS produced the most television assassination documentaries and Time-Life owned the Zapruder film which was crucial evidence. Of the four perspectives on media coverage (the Fourth Estate, Mirror Approach, Marketing, and Hegemony), only hegemony fits the consistent pattern of the media coverage. Berger and Luckman's (1967) social construction of reality involves reification, legitimization, and institutionalization. As Kuhn (1962) notes in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, normally when the number of anomalies to a theory becomes too great, we are forced to switch to another explanation. However, this did not happen with the Kennedy Assassination. We must ask why. The Fourth Estate would predict the media pursue the story with a check and a balance of government by responsible investigative reporting, as the vii Marketing Approach would give the consumers what they want. The Mirror Approach is where the media represents a neutral transmission of information while with Hegemony, the major media would dissipate the greatest possible doubt of a conspiracy in order to create the impression that the political structure was secure and legitimate to create an image of the stable institution of government. The study concludes that hegemony best explains media coverage of the event. 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kermedy was murdered in the streets of Dallas, Texas, by gunfire which also wounded Texas Governor John B. Connally. Within hours, local police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald in connection with the shooting. Oswald steadfastly denied responsibility for the assassination and claimed himself to be imiocent, but never lived to stand trial. Two days later. Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub operator, materialized in the basement of the city jail with a loaded .38 revolver and fired one shot into Oswald's abdomen. Within hours Oswald was dead. The possibility of a trial for him, replete with adversary proceedings, had been eliminated. The same day that Ruby murdered Oswald, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover phoned the White House and spoke to President Lyndon B. Johnson's aide, Walter Jenkins, about a conversation he had with Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach. According to Jenkins' memo of the conversation. Hoover stated that "the thing I am concerned about, and so is Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin" (Appendix to Hearings before the House Select Committee on Assassinations. 1979, 1IHSCA411); hereafter referred to as HSCA). Katzenbach testified that he was reacting to repeated calls from the State Department that a no-conspiracy statement be issued to "quash the beliefs" abroad that conspiracy rumors were true (1979. 3HSCA726). The next day BCatzenbach sent a memo to White House Aide William Moyers advising the formation of a presidential