| Dramatic news photographs have been used by media to craft mythical stories of struggle and triumph that help define American history and culture. Media historians and pundits have told us that such images, including photographs capturing events during the height of the Civil Rights Era, are responsible for shattering previous public perceptions of race and turning mainstream political thought upside down. Visual imagery, according to media lore, is far more powerful than words alone to influence feelings and opinions of the public as a whole. Yet while anecdotal evidence is compelling, empirical evidence of such power is rare.;This dissertation systematically examines mythical and political roles played by some of the most famous images to come out of the Civil Rights Era---the 1963 pictures of police dogs lunging at demonstrators on the streets of Birmingham. Through textual analyses, a survey of young adults, and an experiment, I examine the connection between dramatic news visuals, encoding by media representatives, decoding by individual audience members, and evaluations of political issues. Findings indicate that the photograph's power has never been direct, immediate, and uniform, yet an image can have profound influences---more so than text---over the way some individuals evaluate issues of race. Furthermore, the emotions triggered by such an image can influence subsequent evaluations not only of civil rights issues, but of related equality issues, particularly women's rights. |
