...Witches Eastwick (1987), Practical Magic is part of a recent trend of "witchy" Hollywood depictions in film: Hocus Pocus (1993), The Craft (1996), The Crucible (1997), The Blair Witch Project (1999), and Bewitched (2005). The popularity of on-screen witches is also apparent on television where viewers tune into Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996--present), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and Charmed (1998--present). Not to be excluded is the ever-thriving Harry Potter book (first released in Britain in 1997 and the U.S. in 1998) and film series. Among the proliferation of film and television shows that portray witches, Practical Magic is an important text because of its messages and popularity both within and outside the movement. Opening to "hit-status at the box office" (Vincent, 1998), Practical Magic reflects multiple ideologies and practices central to the Neo-Pagan Movement. Based on a reader poll, Practical Magic was ranked the number one "pagan-friendly movie" by the Pagan magazine PanGia ("Creating a Pagan Bookshelf," 2005, p. 55).

Today, individuals can participate in movements through a variety of ways other than public gatherings or protests, including becoming fans of media programs/films that embody certain identities or political ideologies, purchasing products (e.g., symbolic jewelry and knick-knacks, or organic products), and by publicly displaying symbols (e.g., via bumper stickers and t-shirts). Specifically, when looking at "new" social movements [3] that are stigmatized and/or ostracized by the dominant culture, such as witches, the relationship between media and social movements is even more important than in movements where members are free to publicly identify themselves because media can offer covert access to the movement's ideologies. This issue raises important theoretical questions regarding not only the representations of movements by the media but the relationship between media and social movements where "hidden populations" (Berger, Leach, & Shaffer, 2003, p. xvii) are involved. In other words, what is the relationship between mass media and social movements when the media, particularly film, are the primary means of dissemination of information about the movement within the public sphere? While other media and social movement studies look at what the culture industry does to social movements it is also important to look at what members of movements could potentially do with the texts that the culture industry disseminates.

The purpose of this essay is to discuss and delineate aspects of mass media articulations with social movements composed of "hidden populations." In what follows I present an overview of the literature regarding the relationship between social movements and media pointing to the gap in this literature. This literature does not address the central question raised above regarding the mass media's relationship with social movements comprised of hidden populations and the potential use of media texts by those populations. Next, I briefly discuss "new" social movements and locate the Neo-Pagan Movement as an illustrative case. I ground my discussion of the relationship between mass media and social movements by treating Practical Magic as an example of the potential relationships between media and a movement's ideology and identity construction when mainstream media become the primary means of dissemination, not simply a representation, of the movement. Finally, I conclude with the implications of this essay for understanding stigmatized social movements under the conditions of late capitalism.

Mass Media and Social Movement Theory

Two major themes arise in the literature surrounding mass media and social movements. The first supports the idea that the mass media co-opts social movements, undermining their potential for oppositional resistance. The second theme argues that mass media have the potential to advance social movements. To explore the first of these themes I begin with Bonnie Dow's (2004) "Fixing Feminism."

Dow (2004) examines the first television documentary aired in 1970 discussing the Women's Liberation Movement. Dow argues that even though the creators of the documentary were working to expand and clarify notions of the Women's Liberation Movement, the more radical dements were lost in production of the documentary. Among these lost elements were "systemic critique; an awareness of the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality; and finally, recognition of the difference between the liberal, pluralist concept of choice and the radical notion of freedom" (Dow, 2004, p. 76). In short, the documentary hindered rather than supported aspects of the movement by functioning to "sustain the legitimacy of the economic-political system as a whole" (Dow, 2004, p. 76). The focus of the Women's Liberation Movement was depicted as subscribing to the liberal feminist aspects of the movement, that is, on equal access and equal pay for equal work, rather than the more radical goals of the movement. Although these concerns are legitimate and important topics to be brought into public conversation, they bypass radical aspects of the movement because they do not fit what constitutes "legitimate" grievances by social movement actors as dictated by the public sphere.

Dow (2001) also discusses mass media and the Gay Rights Movement in her analysis of the "coming out" episode on the television show Ellen by exploring what gay visibility is and is not allowed to mean within the realm of commercial media. She concludes that Ellen does allow the mass media to increase legitimacy and visibility for gays and lesbians simply by granting a space to "have one's confession acknowledged" (Dow, 2001, p. 136). However, Dow cautions her readers that "saying the success of Ellen's initial coming out means the end of prejudice against gays and lesbians is like saying that the success of The Cosby Show in the 1980's signaled the end of racism" (p. 128). Much like the Women's Liberation Movement documentary, the media does not address the major issues surrounding gay and lesbian individuals and Ellen's "coming out" works to make audiences "like characters, not issues" (Dow, 2001, p. 137). Multiple mass media techniques work to make the movement palatable for audiences rather than addressing the difficulties of truly challenging the status quo.

Kathleen Battles and Wendy Hilton-Morrow (2002) echo Dow's (2001) claim in their essay "Gay Characters in Conventional Spaces." The most common assumption circling the explosion of "Pink TV" is that more visibility equals greater social acceptance (Battles & Hikon-Morrow). This is problematic for audiences and members of the movement who look to television for representations depicting the "reality" of minority groups. Specifically, as Battles and Hilton-Morrow show, the characters on Will and Grace are written within the lines of popular culture conventions, creating an illustration of gayness equated with "lack of masculinity, and through the familiar situation comedy genre conventions of romantic comedy and delayed consummation, infantilization, and an emphasis on characters' interpersonal relationships rather than the characters' connections to the larger social world" (p. 101).

The essays mentioned above address my first theme, mass media cooptation of social movement messages, and emphasize whether media representations hinder or support a particular social movement. Highlighting media representation and framing, the authors question whether or not visibility via the media helps a movement. The media may give credence to some of the movement's goals as with Ellen's "coming out" story but for the most part many of the concrete problems addressed by the movement are ignored in favor of creating appealing characters, not the need for social change. Furthermore, the media tends to frame the movement's goals in terms of civil rights issues rather than focusing on the more radical aspects of the movement.

Some social movements work to gain visibility and disseminate information through the media, switching the focus from the way that media frames the social movement to the way the social movement strategically uses the media. This second theme is exemplified in the literature focusing on the potential for mass media's advancement of social movements. Key to this thematic is Kevin DeLuca's (1999) Image Politics. Expanding what counts as rhetorically significant and adapting to the landscape of contemporary society as heavily impacted by visual media, DeLuca offers a new look at image events or "spectacle" as a form of agitation used by environmental social movements. Image events do not fit within the tenets of traditional rhetorical theory and as a result the activists utilizing these forms of persuasion have not historically been viewed as credible contributors to social movements. DeLuca is concerned with the disciplinary requirements for what is deemed a legitimate text or form of persuasion. He criticizes scholars who dismiss image events as merely a way for the rhetor to gain attention, and therefore not having "real" rhetorical value. DeLuca defines image events as, "crystallized philosophical fragments, mind bombs that work to expand the universe of thinkable thoughts" (p. 6). He contends that the image event is not only a means of gaining attention but that it creates a "mind bomb" that agitates for change through breaking an individual's "comfortable equilibrium" and expanding their "universe of thinkable thoughts" (DeLuca, p. 6). Whether the image is co-opted or not is irrelevant because the image still tears the discursive fabric operating in the public sphere. DeLuca credits environmental groups for their awareness that image events are significant aspects of any direct action because the "spectacle" works to give the movement access to the public sphere. Considering the image event as rhetorically significant adds to social movement theory by furthering the ability to explore how "radical environmental groups [use] image events to attempt both to deconstruct and articulate identities, ideologies, consciousnesses, communities, publics, and cultures in our modern industrial civilization" (DeLuca, p. 17).

How the mass media can advance social movements is addressed further in Kevin DeLuca and Jennifer Peeples's (2002) essay, "From Public Sphere to Public Screen." DeLuca and Peeples argue that the conception of the public sphere needs a supplement in order to be fully viable in late modernity. They propose the concept of the "public screen," a term that takes seriously "the work of media theorists suggesting that new technologies introduce new forms of social organization and new modes of perception" (DeLuca & Peeples, p. 131). The public screen creates new spaces for politics and citizenship to occur, spaces that do not require certain "appropriate" political activities to be counted as "worthy." DeLuca and Peeples state,

The public screen is a constant current of images and words, a ceaseless circulation abetted by the technologies of television, film, photography, and the Internet. These technologies' speed, stream of images, and global reach create an ahistorical, contextless flow of jarring juxtapositions. (p. 135)

The concept of the public screen combined with the image event illustrates how violence (a type of communication not acceptable in the public sphere) during the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in 1999 forced media coverage and in turn fostered substantial public discussion of humanitarian issues (DeLuca and Peeples, 2002). The public screen supports the view that visibility is potentially good regardless of the type of visibility. As such, movements with hidden populations whose only means of gaining mainstream visibility is through the media may use the public screen to their advantage whether or not depictions are sympathetic...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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