27th Annual Student Research Conference
The Role the Newspapers Played in Public Opinion of the Civil War
Alexander T. Fowler
Dr. Mark Hanley, Faculty Mentor
People dont think about the press playing a major role in the Civil War, but the truth is it played a significant role in the peoples hearts and minds. The press is able to choose what news they want to print and as a result become either the leaders of their community's ideas and values or they become a reflection of the ideas and values in their communities. By looking at the Liberty and St. Louis newspapers one will be able to see how the press is able to affect the public's opinion or is affected by the public's opinion. The focus of this paper will be to show the change over time of public opinion during the war and how the newspapers either lead the change or became a reflection of the local opinion, however in order to understand medias significance one needs to look at more recent conflicts.
Keywords: Civil War, History, Public Opinion, Newspapers, Press
Topic(s):History Senior Seminar
History
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 201-5
Location: MG 2001
Time: 10:30