Loading…

Communications During the Detroit Riot

The flow of COMM's about the Detroit riot of 1967 under conditions of a self-imposed media curfew was investigated using a sample of 504 adults (16 yrs of age & over) in Detroit. Although an absolute curfew was imposed for the first 8 hours after the riot began (to noon on Sunday), 17% of t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journalism Quarterly 1971-07, Vol.48 (2), p.339-342
Main Author: Levy, Sheldon G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The flow of COMM's about the Detroit riot of 1967 under conditions of a self-imposed media curfew was investigated using a sample of 504 adults (16 yrs of age & over) in Detroit. Although an absolute curfew was imposed for the first 8 hours after the riot began (to noon on Sunday), 17% of the whites & 44% of the black R's heard about the riot during this period. Further, of those who heard during the curfew period, 50% of the whites & 21% of the blacks indicated their information came from radio or TV. 53% of the total white sample & 27% of the blacks heard through informal sources. Blacks indicated that they spent about 6.4 hours per day following the riot compared to 3.5 for whites. TV was cited as the most important source during the riot for both groups. The results indicated that blacks heard about the riot earlier than did whites & were more often informed through informal sources. They also indicate the difficulty of making a news blackout effective, at least for a sudden & shocking local event like the Detroit riot of 1967. AA.
ISSN:1077-6990
0196-3031
2161-430X