The Framing Function of Movement Tactics: Strategic Dramaturgy in the American Civil Rights Movement

Abstract

Argues that existing work on strategic framing efforts in the literature on social movements suffers from an ideational bias, & proposes an alternative analysis of the framing function illustrated via case studies of the US civil rights movement. The extant literature is indicted for both its failure to conduct empirical work & its tendency to view framing as a formal ideological expression rather than an outcome of specific tactics & actions by movements. It is shown in a brief analysis of the early civil rights movement, in particular, the actions of Martin Luther King, Jr., that tactics & strategies are central to understanding the success of its framing activities. It is suggested that the movement's success was due to its ability to invoke a set of predictable responses from four different reference publics: segregationists, the media, the public, & the federal government. It is argued that the general lesson to be learned from this episode is that movement scholarship must transcend its conventional movement-centric bias to consider the relation of movements to other social dynamics & publics. 2 Figures. D. M. Smith