Overview

In 1998, the horrific murders of Matthew Shepard - a gay man living in Laramie, Wyoming - and James Byrd Jr. - an African American man dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas - provoked 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.

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9780253356598

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[Peterson] breaks new ground by showing how national and local media coverage interact and how popular emotion and public legislation work together. John D. Peters, University of Iowa, author of Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition ...engrossing and expertly-argued reading. Petersen gracefully blends theoretical investigations with narrative recountings of the two cases. Beth Loffreda, University of Wyoming, author of Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder

""[Peterson] breaks new ground by showing how national and local media coverage interact and how popular emotion and public legislation work together."" John D. Peters, University of Iowa, author of Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition ""...engrossing and expertly-argued reading. Petersen gracefully blends theoretical investigations with narrative recountings of the two cases."" Beth Loffreda, University of Wyoming, author of Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder

<p>. ..engrossing and expertly-argued reading. Petersen gracefully blendstheoretical investigations with narrative recountings of the two cases. -- BethLoffreda, University of Wyoming, Losing Matt Shepard

[Peterson] breaks new ground by showing how national and local media coverage interact and how popular emotion and public legislation work together. John D. Peters, University of Iowa, author of Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition ...engrossing and expertly-argued reading. Petersen gracefully blends theoretical investigations with narrative recountings of the two cases. Beth Loffreda, University of Wyoming, author of Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder

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