Editing Conservatism: How National Review Magazine Framed and Mobilized a Political Movement

Abstract

This article examines how National Review magazine helped to spark the 1960s American conservative movement through its particular framing of conservatism and how the magazine has worked to sustain that influence even until today. Using research on frame alignment in social movements, the first issue of National Review is analyzed and placed in context with contemporaneous events and publications. The creation and editing of the magazine is found to parallel the creative and deliberate framing of the early conservative movement. The implications of National Review's success for today's political movements and for creators of political media messages are also discussed.

Notes

¹The first issue of National Review is of particular interest here because it provided a clear purpose and “manifesto” of principles for the magazine's content in the years to come. Although the magazine has now been published for more than 50 years, the degree to which its early content served as a mobilizing force for the conservative movement in the late 1950s and 1960s is of greatest interest in this study. Therefore, a close examination of the statements made in this first issue can demonstrate the key elements of its mobilizing power. As Johnson and Prijatel (2007) noted, “a magazine has a driving philosophy which, if strongly defined, gives the publication its identity and personality. An editorial philosophy explains what the magazine is intended to do, what areas of interest it covers, how it will approach those interests, and the voice it will use to express itself” (p. 135). The “Publisher's Statement” and other forward-looking self-descriptions in this first issue of National Review serve much the same purpose as a contemporary “editorial philosophy,” thus permitting this first issue to represent much of the magazine's direction and content during the formation of the conservative movement of its era.

²The reference is to the 1955 Geneva Conference, which was intended to resolve some of the Cold War issues between Russia and the United States but was seen by many Americans as making little progress toward eliminating Communism. The Geneva Accords also resulted in the partitioning of Vietnam.

³Bai (2007) further described in his book how the Democrats today are making an effort not only to “re-brand” their party in marketing terms but to revise and redefine the ideology of the party from the bottom up, using a network of wealthy donors, bloggers, and activists to support and disseminate the party's reimagined “progressive” perspective.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan Currie Sivek

Susan Currie Sivek is an assistant professor of Mass Communication and Journalism at California State University, Fresno. Her research focuses on the role of media in forming political and geographic identity.