Where Have All the Heroes Gone?: The Changing Nature of American Valor
Bruce G. Peabody and Krista Jenkins
Abstract
We use the concept of American heroism to show an important and recurring gap between the views of political and media elites in the U.S. and the attitudes of the public. Over the past five decades, important changes in the electoral landscape, our competitive and technological media environment, and popular misgivings about many of our major institutions have induced governing officials and producers of media content to adopt distinctive strategies in deploying heroism. At the same time, the mass public’s response to these moves have been complex and, on the whole, deeply skeptical. Consequen ... More
We use the concept of American heroism to show an important and recurring gap between the views of political and media elites in the U.S. and the attitudes of the public. Over the past five decades, important changes in the electoral landscape, our competitive and technological media environment, and popular misgivings about many of our major institutions have induced governing officials and producers of media content to adopt distinctive strategies in deploying heroism. At the same time, the mass public’s response to these moves have been complex and, on the whole, deeply skeptical. Consequently, political rhetoric, media discourse, and the conversations and judgments of the public all present and describe heroes differently. Documenting and exploring these disjunctures helps one understand the contested nature of American heroism, but, more importantly, provides important insights about political socialization, institutional trust, and political communication. Our work differs from other studies of heroism by offering a new theoretical model, in emphasizing the elite-public schism, through the use of a diverse and multi-method approach, and by being ultimately concerned with political questions, broadly understood.
Keywords:
Hero,
heroism,
political trust,
political communication,
media,
American politics
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2017 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199982950 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2017 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199982950.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Bruce G. Peabody, author
Professor of Political Science, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Krista Jenkins, author
Professor of Political Science, Fairleigh Dickinson University
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