Were it not for the negative coverage that it receives from elite
American news organizations, the National Rifle Association and American
gun culture as a whole would not be in the position of strength they
enjoy today. The more negative coverage the elite media have dished out,
the more people have been attracted to NRA and gun culture. Brian Anse
Patrick presents the evidence for this startling case. As an analysis of
the data unmistakably shows, not only are the elite media
systematically biased against NRA, they have indeed inadvertently helped
to mobilize American gun culture, making it one of the most successful
social movements of modern times. In the new edition of this
groundbreaking study, with a new Foreword by the author, Prof. Patrick
makes his case. The evidence is incontrovertible and based on scientific
content analysis of ten years of actual NRA coverage in many elite news
publications, compared and contrasted with similar coverage of other
major American social movements. Additionally, Prof. Patrick presents an
innovative model for how information is disseminated from top-to-bottom
in the mainstream media which he terms "administrative democracy," and
suggests how groups like the NRA flourish in part because of the
increasing availability of non-centralized social media which allow
dissenters from the prevailing media paradigm to construct their own
narratives with which to understand society and their place within it.
Written in a lucid and penetrating style, this book should be of
interest to readers on either side of the gun rights debate, as well as
to those wishing to study the workings of a successful citizens'
advocacy network.