| The NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, has a 100-year history of mobilizing and educating minority voters, particularly African Americans. Millions of African Americans responded to the NAACP's multi-million dollar publicity campaign that urged them to cast their ballots during the 2000 presidential election. When the contest stalled unexpectedly, the NAACP had to develop a communications response that helped U.S. voters and its primary constituency, African Americans, to understand the election's consequences.; As an advocacy organization, the NAACP serves the needs of its constituency, lobbies for legislative action and presses for social change. The public relations department is an essential link between the organization, its public and the media. This framing study qualitatively examines the NAACP's public relations messages and compares their content to news coverage in the mainstream press. It also reveals differences in the media's focus, despite the attempts of an advocacy organization to shape media coverage. The lack of the media's coverage of the NAACP also raises questions about the media's power to shape news through the sources it selects and those it omits. |
