1st Edition
Media, History, and Memory A Critical Perspective
Dedication
List of contributors
Introduction
Who Tells Your Story? The Connections Between Media, History, and Memory
LISA M. BURNS
Chapter 1
How Do We Remember the Women’s Suffrage Movement? Four Mediations in the Cultural Context of 2020
CAROLYN KITCH
Chapter 2
Rosa Parks: Memory, Myth, and Social Media of a Civil Rights Icon
FELICIA MCGHEE AND CHERYL ANN LAMBERT
Chapter 3
Weaponizing the Civils Rights Movement: Eyes on the Prize, Dominant Memory, and Critical Disruptions
MARY C. SCHMITT
Chapter 4
Making a Myth: How First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Created Camelot
COURTNEY CAUDLE TRAVERS
Chapter 5
Reframing Nixon and Watergate: Assessing Public Perceptions Before and After Trump
LORI COX HAN
Chapter 6
The “Expert” in the Room: Reflecting Upon How Two Media Historians Informed the Public Memory of Jimmy Carter
LORI AMBER ROESSNER AND JASON LEE GUTHRIE
Chapter 7
“Homosexuals Have Rights—And So Do Trees”: Recovering the Forgotten History of Trees for Queens and Stonewall Era Environmental Activism
CODY HAYS AND CHELSEA JULIAN REYNOLDS
Chapter 8
Gendered Representation in Television’s China Beach
MONICA PEREIRA AND CHRISTINA M. SMITH
Chapter 9
Counter-History on Television: An Analysis of Alternative History Programs Star Trek, Watchmen, and For All Mankind
SUMMIT P. OSUR
Chapter 10
Never Not Here: Reclaiming Indigenous Presence and Perspectives in the Archives, America’s Media, and the Academy
MELISSA GREENE-BLYE
Chapter 11
Countermemory and Politics of Inclusion: The Bene/violent Public Memory of Historic Fort Snelling
NOELLE F. CRAVEIRO
Chapter 12
The Frontierland of Representation: Disneyland’s Container of Marginality
JAIME GUZMÁN AND ARTHUR D. SOTO-VÁSQUEZ
Chapter 13
Protest in Play: Athletes and Resistance in Public Memory
SHELVIA DANCY
Chapter 14
Reclaiming Women’s Place in Sports History
CAROLINA VELLOSO
Index
Biography
Lisa M. Burns is a Professor of Media Studies at Quinnipiac University. Her research focuses on media coverage of US presidents and their spouses, political branding, and public memory. She is the editor of Media Relations and the Modern First Lady: From Jacqueline Kennedy to Melania Trump (2020), The Cambridge Companion to US First Ladies (2025), and author of First Ladies and the Fourth Estate: Press Framing of Presidential Wives (2008).
"By elevating marginalized perspectives and exploring the unconventional spaces where we encounter history, Media, History and Memory powerfully reshapes our understanding of public memory. Accessible yet rigorous, this collection is essential reading for media scholars and general readers who wish to understand how media artifacts construct our collective past."
Erika Pribanic-Smith, Professor, University of Texas at Arlington, USA
"Media, History, and Memory: A Critical Perspective is an indispensable volume for scholars of history, public memory, and popular culture. The collected essays provide a rich set of case studies of diverse memories mediated through a wide variety of artifacts, from documentaries to Star Trek to Disneyland and beyond."
Kendall R. Phillips, Professor, Syracuse University, USA
"In this political moment when historical memory is contested and America’s story manipulated, Lisa Burns has curated an excellent anthology of essays on media and collective memory, focusing in particular on marginalized groups and narratives. This collection illuminates the cultural power of storytelling."
Janice Hume, Professor Emerita, University of Georgia, USA
