A Case Study in Print Media and Heroic Myth: Lee Iacocca 1978-1985.

Abstract

Previous literature concerning the hero myth has not addressed how someone becomes a contemporary folk hero. This essay suggests that an answer can be found within the mythopoetic role of the media. The mediated “Chrysler drama” and subsequent popular proclamation of Lee Iacocca as a national folk hero is examined as a case study to determine the rhetorical strategies that present mediated actions and actors as “heroic.”