Media and mobilization: The case of radio and southern textile worker insurgency, 1929 to 1934

Collective action rests, in part, on group identity and political opportuni ty. Just how group identity is manifested and perceptions of political oppo rtunity are altered, however, remain unclear particularly in the case of a geographically dispersed population. An often overlooked mechanism is media technology This article analyzes an important yet underexamined instance o f worker mobilization in the United States: the southern textile strike cam paigns of 1929 to 1934 during which more than 400,000 workers walked off th eir jobs. Using historical data on textile manufacturing concentration and strike activity, FCC data on radio station foundings, and analyses of polit ical content and song lyrics, the authors show that the geographic proximit y of radio stations to the "textile belt" and the messages aired shaped wor kers' sense of collective experience and political opportunity: Walk-outs a nd strike spillover across mill towns resulted. The implications of the ana lyses for social movement theory generally, and for the understanding of ho w media can enable or constrain collective struggle, are discussed.