Currently, the issue of police brutality in the United States of America and other developed countries built on stolen soil have risen to the media and the public. People have openly expressed their anger, frustration, fear and emotional turmoil caused by these issues. The Black Lives Matter movement, originating in America, has caused shockwaves through the globe and dug up forgotten issues across other countries. For example, in Australia, since the Black Lives Matter protests the issue of police bias against Indigenous Australians has risen. Photographs, videos and various anecdotes have been raised to the public eye whilst authorities are under constant scrutiny. The public has lost their trust in the police force and are currently calling for a defunding of the police. Many believe that the funding provided to the police could be provided for better uses, such as improved public healthcare and improving social services, such as protection against victims of domestic violence. Calls for further education and training for armed police officers have also been called for by the public.
Quite obviously, the mainstream media has covered the topic of the Black Lives Matter movement. There have been countless reports and stories detailing specific events occurring from the protests sparked by this movement. There have been various media outlets, both small and large as well as reliable and unreliable sources. Sometimes with the excess media coverage of the Black Lives Matter protest, readers can easily become overwhelmed with the information presented to them, especially if there is conflicting information - similar to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside great media articles and coverage, there has also been an excess of ‘fake news’ coverage and dramatic stories and recollections of the protests which never occurred. Media companies are ultimately writing stories to gain readers and appeal to a large audience. In the end, they are trying to make a profit. They don’t report for justice and equality, but for their own personal benefit. It is important to acknowledge that the media has a bias towards dramatic events from the Black Lives Matter protests. They are more likely to report these stories, with the intention to cause a commotion and increase the audience of their article. By writing about emotion or thought-provoking stories, these media outlets are able to make significantly larger profits and gain a loyal audience.
The public outcry against this rising and worsening issue has been sparked by the death of George Floyd, an African-American father who was killed by a police officer despite being unarmed and pleading for help, as he claimed he couldn’t breathe. This particular death has caused turmoil and chaos within America, as people can no longer stand the injustice of racial segregation and inequality. The impacts and discoveries from black individuals are almost always wiped out of history books and their lives are often forgotten about.
Unsurprisingly, the mainstream media has been consistently reporting and releasing stories about Black Lives Protests through the height of the public outcry. Journalists, publishers and amateur reporters all constantly seek engaging stories for their audiences. Handpicking specific events, such as violent raids and riots, then presenting these occurrences as commonplace during the protests, these media outlets either knowingly or unknowingly dent the public’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The majority of attendees at the Black Lives Matter protests are actually peaceful and come from family groups. These individuals did not support the violent riots or raids, neither did they want to get wrapped up in these situations. They came to the protests unarmed with nothing but their support and united voices, law enforcement, however, greeted the protesters with pepper spray and tear gas. Bear in mind that the usage of tear gas for weaponry services was banned after its heavy utilisation during World War One. Many individuals came to the protests with the intention to make their voices heard in a peaceful manner and did not decide or want to become involved in illegal activity or violent raids or riots.
According to Professor Kilgo, an expert in journalism as an assistant professor at Indiana University, the phenomenon is known as the ‘protest paradigm’ is currently occurring during the BLM movement. In an article published on, The Conversation, she discusses how this phenomenon has occurred and its impacts as well as what led to the movement. The media is specifically handpicking events like riots, to depict the BLM movement protests as nothing but a pot stirred with trouble. The media, therefore, portrays the protestors and the attendees as dramatic, inconvenient, unnecessary and disruptive. Because of this, the public support of these protests erodes, causing the attendance to decrease, subduing the impacts of these protests.
The majority of media outlets have profit as their motivation to report about these protests. They have taken advantage of the Black Lives Matter movement to their benefit. It is important to recognise and note that they are motivated by money through their writing of articles. We must recognise that they are attempting to maximise the amount of profit they make for each article they publish, by increasing the public appeal or response from their articles. They choose specific events which will evoke a specific emotion from the reader or cause a commotion. For example, in the context of the Black Lives Matter protests, large media companies are more likely to report on stories which depict protestors as unruly, violent ‘thugs’ committing illegal felonies, whilst they are discouraged from writing a sweet story where primary school aged children protest for movement within their schoolyard. This is where the real issue stems.
Even if a journalist claims that they are unbiased and writing purely on what is currently happening during the protests, it can be difficult to believe they are completely neutral on this issue. In the end, a journalist wants a major publisher to publish their story on a big newspaper, where it will get lots of attention. The journalists, therefore, must pick compelling stories which are engaging. Unfortunately, as a whole, we are more interested in dramatic events that depict a particular individual, group, community or society in a negative light, rather than a positive story about a good thing happening around the world. We are just wired like that.
As a reader, consumer or an absorber of media, it is important that we recognise and actively pay attention to the information we are processing and receiving from the mainstream media. We must remember to identify potential biases in reports, and we must always take into account whether we are reading from a reliable source, such as The Age. Remember to always crosscheck your stories and make sure that it actually occurred, rather than a fabricated one. We must remember to be extra vigilant during these times, due to the massive and over grossly reported issue of the Black Lives Matter movement. Right after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, bear in mind was one of the most reported medical issues in all of history, media outlets rapidly switched their focus to the BLM movement and protests. We must remember and learn our lessons from the media coverage from COVID-19, and remember that ‘fake news’ exists and as an audience, we must make sure we are always only processing reliable information. Calling out ‘fake news’ is also important for us as a community. After the Black Lives Matter movement began to dissipate from social media, it was immediately observed that media outlets abruptly stopped their coverage of this topic. It is evident that these big firms are only reporting on these matters to make money.
Written by: Chi Nguyen
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