CONSTRUCTING THE CULTURAL CURTAIN: THE MEANING OF COLD WAR IN YORK, PENNSYLVANIA DAILY NEWSPAPERS, 1947-1962

This study focuses on two newspapers' constructions of the meaning of Cold War in the United States from 1947 through 1962. The study utilized the two daily newspaper competitors in York, Pennsylvania, The York Dispatch and The York Gazette and Daily.;The Gazette has been labeled a very liberal and "deviant" newspaper; the Dispatch has been called conservative and "conventional." While this study found no evidence to contradict those political generalizations, the two papers were more alike than different in the quantity, treatment and content of items reflecting Cold War themes. Despite sharp political contrast, the papers shared basic understanding about the definition and "mission" of America, and the nation's values, climate, and goals. During the Cold War years, both papers portrayed American culture as persistently and obsessively measuring itself against its avowed enemy, the Soviet Union. In the early years it was a comparison framed in militaristic language and concerns; in later years it was framed in the language of sports and the "race" and encompassed all aspects of U.S. culture.;Both newspapers utilized a distinct lexicon of terms with which to describe Cold War America. Three chronological periods of meaning emerged in the papers during which transformations in the treatment and appearance of themes and terms were apparent.;The most clear differences in the newspapers were in the Gazette's exploration of the press as a Cold War participant, a topic absent from the Dispatch, and in their contrasting understandings of the means to be used to achieve U.S. goals. Otherwise, these two newspapers helped to construct the American version of an iron curtain, a cultural curtain designating common understandings of what was and was not important and appropriate to U.S. life under Cold War.;A random sample constituting three composite weeks was chosen for each newspaper, totaling 18 issues per paper per year and 576 in all. The contents of each newspaper were read with the exception of advertising and sports. Twelve themes associated with the Cold War were used to identify newspaper content significant to the construction of Cold War culture.