Page 51 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

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have
dem-
gap.
They
their major contribution is the concept of the knowledge DOUGLAS, WILLIAM O.
onstrated that this gap tends to be widened, rather than narrowed, by the media
because the media reach the informed more than they reach the uninformed.
Their varied backgrounds have enriched the combined effort. Donohue is a
sociologist with a Ph.D. from Washington State. Olien is a rural sociologist with
a master's in sociology from Minnesota. Tichenor received his bachelor's and
master's in agricultural journalism from Wisconsin and his Ph.D. in mass com-
munication research from Stanford.
They have used the state of Minnesota as their laboratory as they have ex-
amined such issues as what news gets published, how news of conflict gets
reported, the social consequences of information, and accuracy in news. (See
also Knowledge Gap.)
SOURCE: William David Sloan, Makers of the Media Mind, 1990.
Guido H. Stempel III

DOUGLAS, WILLIAM O. (1898-1980) was a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
He was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939, replacing Louis
Brandeis. He was born in Yakima, Washington, and had a bout of polio that
left him with the challenge of strengthening his legs. After putting himself
through Columbia Law School, he worked on Wall Street and taught at presti-
gious East Coast law schools, including Yale. However, an early clerkship with
Associate Justice Harlan Fiske Stone sparked his interest in the judicial system.
Douglas was considered a liberal and an absolutist when it came to the First
Amendment. He believed that individual rights, such as freedom of speech and
freedom of the press, were protected in all circumstances under the amendment.
However, he also did not believe in heavy government involvement. He held
that liberty was achievable only if there were no restrictions on speech—even
speech that proposes unpopular beliefs. This was important during the 1960s,
when he supported the rights of civil rights and Vietnam protesters.
Douglas also is credited for shaping opinions regarding free press and fair
trial cases. He believed that trials, as public events, were open to be covered by
the press and that the government could not interfere with the reporting of the
information.
SOURCES: Leonard W. Levy, Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, 1986; Melvin
Urofsky, The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary, 1994.
Jacqueline Nash Gifford

DOUGLASS, FREDERICK (1817-1895). Born the son of a black slave
woman and a white man, Frederick Douglass educated himself, escaped slavery
in 1838, and became an outstanding spokesman for his race, giving notable
service to the cause of freedom throughout his life. His first speech at an anti-
slavery convention in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 1841 made him famous.
William Lloyd Garrison gave this account of the speech: