Sixty years ago today, President Kennedy was shot. I recall snippets of the day. The main one was the coverage on our television -- a 36 inch CRT black and white screen. The usual graininess was worsened by the quality of the television cameras at work that day. They were never good at closeups -- so not like the HD we live with today. The event was replayed over and over again, so I do recall seeing the shooting multiple times.
Fast forward 30 some years and I was doing my doctoral degree in content analysis of television. I've often wondered if seeing the Viet Nam war life on the set as well as the deaths of JFK, RFK and MLK might have affected that choice. I inherently knew that media content could affect how we feel and think, which led me to looing at body image and food related messages in prime time TV.
A friend brought up a good questions. My thesis aside, what might have happened if JFK had not been shot or if it were someone else in the presidency at the time? So many points of history may have changed or may have remained the same. All the "What ifs" could bring forth many events that might have been connected to the JFK shooting. Something like the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, this could begin a whole new connection to potential outcomes. Hmmm. There is a lot to ponder there.
I chose a more recent song written about the assassination by a poet and musician. It was released with an album in 2020. It is a longer piece of spoken word, but is worth the journey. Keep safe. Enjoy!
Murder Most Foul -- Bob Dylan
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