Post‐assassination Newspaper Editorial Eulogies: Analysis and Assessment

Authors

Steven R. Goldzwig, Marquette UniversityFollow
Patricia A. Sullivan, State University of New York‐ New PaltzFollow

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Format of Original

15 p.

Publication Date

1995

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Source Publication

Western Journal of Communication

Source ISSN

1057-0314

Abstract

This essay contends that the modern post‐assassination newspaper editorial eulogy constitutes a significant genre in an age dominated by electronic communication. The newspaper editorial eulogy fuses epideictic and deliberative rhetorical functions in providing systematic therapeutic guidance for engaged readers during the post‐assassination crisis period. The importance of the form is demonstrated in an analysis of newspaper editorials eulogizing John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. In providing a space for symbolic catharsis, celebrating individual virtues and mythic constructions of those virtues, attempting to reknit communal bonds, and proposing policy initiatives, the narratives also pursue a rhetoric of legitimation that serves the status quo and governmental authority.

Comments

Western Journal of Communications, Vol. 59, No. 2 (1995): 126-150. DOI.

Recommended Citation

Goldzwig, Steven R. and Sullivan, Patricia A., "Post‐assassination Newspaper Editorial Eulogies: Analysis and Assessment" (1995). College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications. 372.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/comm_fac/372