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Nixon Postmortem

LORI HOLYFIELD

Cultural theories of communication and media events transcend naive ideas about the media as mere transmitters of information; however, they attend insufficiently to information itself. Richard Nixon's eulogists outraged his critics as they tried to bring the moral, emotional, and informational aspects of the funeral into balance. Placing the Watergate scandal in the context of Nixon's progressive administration, the eulogists not only affirmed national values and the dignity of the presidency but also provided positive information about Nixon that would have had less impact if communicated outside a symbol-laden state funeral setting. Thus, the Nixon funeral shows why the informational function of media events must occupy a more central place in communication theory.

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 560, No. 1, 96-110 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/0002716298560001008


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