Social Media and Social Protest

Media coverage of news events can be disseminated to the general public in any number of different ways and media biases often “reflects certain organizational and/or professional preferences or values” (Bennett 2011, 173). In fact, Lundman (2003) points out “that journalists assess the newsworthiness of homicides occurrences using the relative frequency of particular types of murders and how well specific murder occurrences mesh with stereotypical race and gender typifications (357).” In addition, Johnson (2012) felt that the real job of media was to “create a message that…grabs public attention (62).” In other words, can the media grab the public’s attention and hold it?

The media has a great deal in presenting ‘facts’ about situations. This gives off false information and makes society react based on this information rather than the truth.

Now I realise it seems a bit hypocritical of me to attack the media’s representation of a news event when I myself am a part of the hype-generating circus we call mass media. However, the voice of my wise, high-school English teacher echoes in my subconscious that we should always be critical of the texts we consume and conscious of the

Whether media comes in the form of news coverage, Facebook updates, or even a text message, the media has been transporting information globally with just the touch of a button. But what happens when media is stricken with negative news? How do they go about portraying that negative information without putting their viewers into a worldwide panic? Or is that even their job? With the Ferguson crisis that was currently happening at this point in time, the media played an important role, as they were the ones who were informing media watchers and viewers about what was happening. But many were debating whether or not the news stations did and effective job when reporting to the community about Ferguson. With headline such as, “Officer shoots unarmed teen,” and “Police Brutality at its Finest,” the media was one of the first places that people went to look for more information regarding Michael Brown. When the shooting of Michael Brown took place, news stations were one of the first ones to arrive on the scene. And from that very moment, they were there covering every step a protestor took just to make sure that the Ferguson community was kept in the

In a general sense society derives much of their beliefs and indifferences from stories that are covered in the media. If the stories are being reported biased, how can we, as a society, see the whole picture? The author's purpose is to inform readers about the different biases that news and media sway by and to provide evidence that proves instances when these biases have weakened the validity of the reporter's story. "Journalist are like dogs-whenever anything moves, they begin to bark." (Gladstone, 2011/2013, P.25)

Freedom of the press is one of the most important aspects of democracy. In many countries including Canada and the USA it is at the forefront of their civil rights. Yet often when ideals are not in congruency with the government this right is tested. There has not been a great deal of media coverage on the protests taking place in North Dakota against the Keystone Pipeline. Documentary filmmakers are now facing decades in prison over their filming of the protests. Deia Schlosberg and Lindsay Grayzel are facing felony charges and advocates are stating that this is a direct attack on their first amendment rights. It is important to hear about cases like this because we need to maintain media democracy to protect our own democratic society. Furthermore, the agenda setting theory seems to

The media controls the way the public views a controversial event. It can create the illusion that everything is perfect by leaving out important information, or can reveal the deplorable truth as the media did during the Civil Rights Movement. It was not always that way though, during the Colonial Era the media glossed over the brutality African Americans

“As they fathom injustice, organize to protest, craft a tactics, and engage in action, these bodies read what is happening and articulate their imaginative rebuttal. In so doing they demonstrate to themselves and all those watching that something can be done. Could this be why they are called political ‘movements’?”

Unfortunately, society is not receiving all of the information, which has resulted in riots and the Black Lives Matter campaign. These riots are aggressive, resulting in the destruction of communities and an overall disregard for societal safety. By analyzing media coverage, this paper will reveal how the

Another way that the media is distorting the way we view a group of people or a movement would be the demonizing of Black Lives Matter supporters. News broadcasts tend to show radical images or video clips of racist hate groups who claim to support Black Lives Matter. They use phrases like “murder movement” and “race war” in order to instill a hatred and fear of the movement.

According to Goode, the grassroots theory argues that the press responds to the biases of the public by reporting stories that are appealing to their readership (Goode, pp. 127). Let’s face it, the news media not only creates an outrage at times with their shocking articles or broadcasts, they

In our democratic society, mass media is the driving force of public opinion. Media sources such as Internet, newspaper, news-broadcasts, etc, play significant roles in shaping a person’s understanding and perception about the events occurred in our daily lives. As long as the newspapers, internet, network television, etc, continued to be easily accessible to the public, the media will continue to have an influence in shaping its opinions. Factors such as agenda-setting, framing and priming help shape the public opinions. Agenda-setting is when the media focuses their attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinion on, whereas framing allows the media to select certain aspects about the problem and then

As a logical consequence, Postmes and Brunsting (2002) reasoned that the Internet is changing society because people's cognitive processes, triggered by access to information and communication, replace the strong social ties that traditionally underpin committed activism. In simpler words, in the past, humanity used the herd instinct as the main driving force behind committed forms of activism. Thanks to the Internet, we climb another step or three on the evolutionary ladder, and simply do away with the herd instinct and replace it with reason. The argument, if put this way, does not sound particularly strong. What can be taken away is that social media is still evolving, that social media changes the way we – or most of us communicate, that social media is used in social and political activism, and that the Internet increases quantitative if not qualitative access to information.

As Griffin (2009, p. 364) so concisely stated, “the media aren’t very successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about”. In more recent times, the direction of this theory has changed. Scholars have begun to focus on how the media “frame” social issues through the inclusion and omission of certain attributes of particular events (Ruddock, 2013). “Framing” refers to the forming of narratives and concepts that deliver meaning as an event unfolds (McCombs and Shaw, 1972). Themes such as media violence, particularly in the event of a school shooting, are often used to repeatedly reinforce social norms that are deemed important by the media. As a result, generic stereotypes are inevitably cast and the potential copycat behavior advertised.

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." This quote by A.J. Liebling illustrates the reality of where the media stands in today's society. Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in power throughout the media with regard to politics. The media's original purpose was to inform the public of the relevant events that occurred around the world. The job of the media is to search out the truth and relay that news to the people. The media has the power to inform the people but often times the stories given to the public are distorted for one reason or another. Using slant and sensationalism, the media has begun to shape our views in society and the process by which