Cheryl R. Jorgensen-Earp

Cheryl R. Jorgensen-Earp teaches at Lynchburg College. In 2001, she was named Virginia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancem...

In the Wake of Violence
Image and Social Reform

Cheryl R. Jorgensen-Earp

How acts of violence are rhetorically "managed" by social movements: In the Wake of Violence explores the immediate and longer term aftermath of violence committed by independent radicals involved in single-issue movements. Cheryl R. Jorgensen-Earp explores several specific incidents in recent history—the arson of a Vail ski resort by environmentalists, the murder of Dr. John Britton by an antiabortion activist, and the torching of a University of California research laboratory by animal rights activists among them—to discover how the perpetrators of the violence and the majority
of reformers involved in their movements rhetorically framed the violent act for a potentially outraged public.

In the Wake of Violence, claims Jorgensen-Earp, the perpetrators are often forthcoming with both explanations for and a defense of their actions, casting themselves as righteous actors or martyrs for a cause. However, ardent reformers within the same cause might look with genuine revulsion at the actions of their own radical wing. This study claims that the nonviolent
majority in single-issue reform movements employs a predictable constellation of rhetorical strategies to manage the impact of radical fringe violence. The primary goal of this rhetoric is to
avoid a backlash against the larger movement by a public alienated by violent acts.

In examining specific rhetorical responses by the nonviolent majority in antiabortion, animal welfare, environmental reform, abolition, and women’s suffrage movements, Jorgensen-Earp considers a wide range of discourse types—from newspaper articles, interviews, and editorials to private letters; from editorial cartoons to the homemade signs of movement activists; and from speeches to modern Internet sites. She discovers that the image restoration techniques brought to bear for a reform cause are similar to those employed by a corporation accused of wrongdoing.
Ultimately, she finds that the majority of proponents of the causes she examines believe
that the violence can or will be condoned and that it must be rhetorically mitigated.

Reviews

Cheryl Jorgensen-Earp's book combines the best features of a longitudinal examination of specific movements with an intrinsic analyses of the pressure violence places on the language of reform when change is postponed, patience wears thin, reason is exhausted, and hope falters. In the Wake of Violencebelongs on the bookshelf of every rhetorical critic. —John Angus Campbell, Professor Emeritus, Department of Communication, University of Memphis

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"This book is a wide-ranging, illuminating study of how single-issues groups similarly work to protect their image and keep acceptable relations with the public."-Midwest Book Review