Using The Media To Understand The Ferguson Case

On August 9th 2014, an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. A day following Brown’ s death, a riot broke out in Ferguson which caught the attention of the entire country. The fact that black people suffers disproportionally from police violence isn’ t uncommon given that deadly use of force by the police towards blacks under 21 years of age is 20% compared to 8.7% to whites (Johnson et al., 2014). Perhaps what is surprising is the speed of organization and the intensity of young people in Ferguson to use the death of Michael Brown as a final straw in the injustice and racism blacks suffers to this day. For this paper, I shall analyze the Ferguson riot under the #BlackLivesMatter

In “Taking Sides in Ferguson” Noah C. Rothman elaborates on why the media was excessively involved throughout the riots in Ferguson. After the killing of Michael Brown in August of 2014, many angry citizens began protesting the unjust authorities as well as the judicial system. The media’s biased views were trying to mete the social justice system and authorities. This was used to correct many of the things done wrong during the racial past throughout America. The news media used the incidents in Ferguson to inflate their opinions by excessively throwing themselves into the action, along with Ferguson’s local authorities causing more violence throughout Ferguson. Many readers would agree that Rothman does well elaborating the media’s biased views; while also describing the media’s over-involvement with examples of other journalist’s, however, he contradicts his argument on whether or not the media or the authorities were instigating the violence.

“Overall, reported homicides were up 16% in 2015, but a majority of cities (44 of 60) have not seen a statistically significant increase in homicides” (Congressional Research Service). Some believe the rate of violent crimes in the United States is increasing due to the Ferguson incident. The Ferguson incident is the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. The shooting aroused protests around the United States pertaining to reforming on how police use force. Experts have been pegging the general increase in violent crimes in the United States due to the Ferguson incident the “Ferguson effect.” The Ferguson effect tells that in wake of the incident, police have become more reluctant to engage in proactive policing.

The media is supposed to be and unbiased news source that we can rely on to give us unaltered and factual news from around the world to keep us in the loop of things, or so we thought. Yet most of the reports on Ferguson have been of people who view the police as antagonists or with having fault and with black protestors in the background. The media is biasedly and sometimes falsely reporting about the Michael brown shooting with reports siding more with and encouraging the activists. These actions lead to greater unrest among the people and caused interference with police duty.

It is heartbreaking to see videos, pictures and hear of the cruel, unjust stories of police brutality in today’s media; however, it has become a common occurrence all over the world. One of the most recent police brutality case stories is the Ferguson case. The Ferguson case occurred on August 9th, 2014 when Michael Brown, an African American male, was shoot to death by a white, male police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown was suspected of a strong-armed robbery minutes before his death. The story caused an outrage in the media when Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Michael Brown, was not indicted on November 24, 2014. Riots took place all

With the main topic being was it justice or injustice being for Officer Wilson to use that firearm to kill an unarmed man. The killing of Mike Brown captured the world’s attention and the aftermath of the situation had people around the world in front of their computer and television. As of today Ferguson has made some significantly changes within their department and have been striving towards a positive

Darin Wilson, a white police officer, shot and killed Michael Brown, an African American man, on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, MO. Protest demonstrations occurred immediately from the black community in Ferguson, leading to more violence. This incident sparked tension between the police and the African American communities across the U.S. resulting in a number of violent altercations, and deaths between the two groups within the last two years. This unrest, which remains today, can be attributed to present day racism and racial tension in America.

Harris (2015) in his article, “The Next Civil Rights Movement?” explores the idea that racial tension in connection to police brutality is an extension of the civil rights movement from the 1960s. By connecting a contemporary movement to a well-documented movement, it is possible for racial tensions and police conduct to gain momentum in the news media. Furthermore, the advent of social media in more modern times has changed the face of the traditional civil rights movement as there is now the possibility for the movement to gain momentum in a matter of hours rather than days or week as was the case in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. This instantaneous collective momentum has allowed the news media the opportunity to explore varying points of view straight from the public through their posts, videos, and pictures on social media rather than relying on selective interviews. The momentum behind the movement has gained traction and prominence in the mind of the public with the creation of the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) and #AllLivesMatter

BREAKING NEWS: Riots in Ferguson. Unemployment rates at an all time high. Immigration problems out of control. Listening to the news, people hear many politicians, newscasters, and reporters talking about the different problems that the world is facing. From the nuclear weapon debate in Iran, to should Donald Trump be president, to drugs rampant in both big cities and small towns, all of these issues are surrounded by the rapidly growing and concerning topic of social inequality. For hundreds upon thousands of years, social inequity has been ever present throughout time, and has become a serious problem all over the world. These days, it has a major effect on teenagers. However, authors can make an impact on readers, and many forms

In 2014, the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri sparked an outbreak of protests and negative attention against the nation 's law enforcement. Michael Brown was shot and killed and the whereabouts of what actually happened were very unclear. Was it an accident? Was it intentional? Did Michael Brown give a big enough reason to be shot at or was the cop abusing of his power? So many questions were asked and many of them were left unanswered. There was not enough evidence to figure out what happened. Many witnesses thought that it was a race issue and that the officer, Officer Darren Wilson, had no reason to kill Michael. The grand jury declared Darren Wilson not guilty for the murder of Michael Brown (Buchanan 2015). After the tragedy occurred and the news of the officers’ liberty spread, the “war” against officers had begun (Kaste 2015). 51 officers were killed nationwide all in 2014, a huge increase from the 27 killed in 2013 (Kaste 2015). People from all over the country were becoming terrified of the nation’s patrolmen. The fight between police officers and the community is becoming a serious issue. Cops are being blamed for unjust behavior against innocent people and nothing can be done to prove that what the officer did, was for a good reason. It is a “he said/she said” controversy when trying to figure out who 's right. Incidents involving police force and citizen misconduct were

When reading the article on Ferguson, I experienced feelings of sadness, disgust and anger. The media’s influence on some people has had a highly effective outcome. There has not been any rioting and looting in Ferguson for many months since things calmed down. Soon as the media started announcing the one year anniversary, all crap hit the fan.

In the article, “The Tragedy of Ferguson”, David Von Drehle and Alex Altman try to capture the moments after the shooting of a young black teenage boy by a white police officer. They use figurative language, tone, witness accounts, and structure in the way the accounts are told to describe the events in the most powerful way.

Introduction – The article that I chose is from CNN titled “What Happened When Michael Brown Met Officer Darren Wilson” by Rachel Clarke and Christopher Lett (http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/08/us/ferguson-brown-timeline/). A couple of months ago, Ferguson, Missouri, was just a little suburb right outside the well-known city of St. Louis, but just recently, it seems that it is all you hear and read about. On the ninth day in August of the year two thousand and fourteen in Ferguson, Missouri, Officer Darren Wilson, a white police officer, shot and killed an unarmed black male by the name of Michael Brown at the young age of eighteen. The article talks about two different sides of the story; one from the witnesses point and the other from law enforcement and a family friend of Officer Wilson. As to every story, there are always three sides to every story. According to what the witnesses say, Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson, were walking down the street after stopping at a local Ferguson Market and Liquor store, when they were stopped by Officer Darren Wilson. Johnson told to CNN that Officer Wilson had stopped the two young men when walking home from the market and had told them to either “Get the f*** on the sidewalk” or “Get the f*** out of the street.” (Clarke and Lett 2014). The young men replied that they were only a short minute away from where they were heading and that they would shortly be out of the streets (Clarke and Lett 2014). Johnson’s side of the story

We live in a place where we are masked with blindfolds given by the creators of our corrupt home we call America. The land of the free, but then again are we really ? Or are we just victims of a homicide that not only takes the life of a person, but their mind. Fed empty thoughts and brainwashed by the media in effort to distract the mind from the  realities and importance of a given situation, and into meaningless topics and conversations. A world ran off of media that is quick to publicize and dramatize the divorce of a famous couple but downplays police brutality and the mass killings of predominately black individuals. But don't you dare speak out upon it and state things such as “black lives matter” because with that comes the outrush

media group in 2013. When teenage boys in Auckland posted videos of themselves for all to see, as smug power brokers in their ability to bully young girls into sex, they became known as the ‘Roast Busters’. The scandal highlighted why police handling and media coverage of these crimes is so vital, and why their response to the RoastBusters scandal was so horrendous. The resulting public perception of the police force, our current rape laws, and the implications for our justice system today are anything but appealing.