ORIGINAL ARTICLE

It's more than just news: Print media, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Collective Memory among African Americans

Corresponding Author

Cleothia Frazier

cleothia.g.frazier@vanderbilt.edu

Cleothia Frazier is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at Vanderbilt University.The author would like to thank Dr. Shaul Kelner, Dr. C. André Christie-Mizell, and Dr. Christy Erving for their feedback and support of this project. The author also acknowledges feedback from anonymous reviewers, which helped improve the final version of the paper. The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.Search for more papers by this author

Cleothia Frazier,

Corresponding Author

Cleothia Frazier

cleothia.g.frazier@vanderbilt.edu

First published: 30 July 2020

https://doi.org/10.1111/johs.12281

Citations: 8

Cleothia Frazier is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at Vanderbilt University.

The author would like to thank Dr. Shaul Kelner, Dr. C. André Christie-Mizell, and Dr. Christy Erving for their feedback and support of this project. The author also acknowledges feedback from anonymous reviewers, which helped improve the final version of the paper. The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Abstract

This study examines how media can influence and shape collective memory through cultural objects such as magazines. Examination of Jet and Ebony magazines' coverage of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, as well as, changes in the narrative over time, reveal potential mechanisms that might have influenced African Americas' collective memory surrounding this event. Data for this study come from news articles about The Tuskegee Syphilis Study in Jet and Ebony magazines from 1972–2016 (N = 49). Content analysis was used to analyze and discover themes in each of the 49 news stories. Findings show that the journalistic coverage of The Tuskegee Syphilis study by these magazines centered around themes of exploitation of uneducated victims, racism and blame, genocide, medical mistrust and deliberate injection with syphilis, reflecting past and current beliefs of African Americans' remembrance of the study.

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Volume33, Issue3

September 2020

Pages 280-296

It's more than just news: Print media, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Collective Memory among African Americans

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It's more than just news: Print media, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Collective Memory among African Americans

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