THINKING FOR YOU A Presentation by Mason Bear, Daniel Rich, Ryan O’Connor, and Ryan Gould

MISSION STATEMENT Follow Uncover Educate Notoriously liberal and conservative news outlets Uncover Biased portrayals of race and racial groups as they relate to the recent death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO Educate Unsuspecting media consumers on the media’s ability to persuade and influence individuals Goal: educate media consumers to the point that they can challenge conventional news sources and form thoughtful and independent conclusions

INTRODUCTION Did you notice the word Murder? Murder: The crime of deliberately killing a person Accidental Death, Fatality, involuntary manslaughter….. The Powers of Media Influence Key words Confirmation Bias Exclusion of contradicting information Foucault’s Equation of Power Circulated through few systems (The Media) Subject to change through ideological struggle Our Goal How are racial groups depicted through the knowledge and truth produced by the media? Michael Brown Case

CONSERVATIVE OPINION Different Protests have occurred since the death of Michael Brown Source says Brown charged Officer Wilson and never put his arms up Officer Wilson says Brown pinned him in his vehicle and there was a fight for his gun and he feared his life Gun was fired in car twice according to FBI forensics

NEW YORK TIMES: WHAT HAPPENED IN FERGUSON? Opening Sentence: Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 9, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer… Creating a Racial Narrative: Significance of Race Black and Unarmed v. White Police Officer Key Words “There is an altercation…” “Mr Brown Is fatally wounded” Room for interpretation: Differing Perspectives “several witnesses reported….some said…..one witness said” Adressing possible flaws in the grand jury’s verdict “What was different about the Ferguson Grand Jury.” Was the grand jury verdict unjustified?  Ideological Work

USA TODAY: FERGUSON STRUGGLES TO GRASP WHY PROTEST TURNED VIOLENT Don’t Shoot Coalition—asked police to follow 19 rules of engagement (avoid using tear gas, rifles, rubber bullets, etc) Authorities agreed to 11/19 demands “Police broke those promises and were unreasonably aggressive” “The world shouldn’t be surprised to see residents burning local businesses because local residents don’t reap the economic benefits of the commerce.” -Anthony Reliford (Ferguson resident) http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/01/ferguson-struggles-to USA Today, a news source with a slightly liberal slant, ran an article named “Ferguson Struggles to Grasp Why Protest Turned Violent”. This title insinuates that some outside force produced this violence rather than the protesters, and the article continues with compelling arguments to support this theme. Early on the article states that the Don’t Shoot Coalition asked police to follow 19 rules of engagement such as avoiding the use of rifles and rubber bullets. Not only did authorities only agree to 11/19 of these demands, but USA Today took a firm stance stating “police broke those promises and were unreasonably aggressive”. The top right picture depicts an aggressive police force dressed in full riot gear. A Ferguson resident named Anthony Reliford was quoted in the story: “The world shouldn’t be surprised to see residents burning local businesses because local residents don’t reap the economic benefits of the commerce”. To me, this quote encompassed so much of what we have talked about in class regarding wealth disparities that are rooted deep within generations of white privilege and the disenfranchisement of other races. This quote, juxtaposed with the picture of two white men boarding up what appears to be their business, lends understanding to the citizens that were so upset they resorted to burning buildings. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30185686

FOX News “Are Liberal News Outlets Begging for a Race Riot in Ferguson?” Who benefits from coverage of riots? TV networks, extremist voices (“experts”) Black/general communities do not Black community wants “justice” Blacks portrayed as unwilling to listen to defense, follow standard judicial procedures Portrays black uprising/judicial neglect as “common sense” Ideological Work

INTERVIEWS What’s your favorite news outlet? How knowledgeable would you say you are on the Michael Brown court case? If knowledgeable, Can you give us your opinions on the case? On a scale of 1-10 (1=guilty, 10= completely innocent) Where do you believe the police officer stands in the shooting of Michael Brown? We are interested in examining the correlation between individuals favorite news outlet and their stance on the guilt or innocence of the officer that shot and killed Michael Brown.

NEWS SOURCE  OPINION CORRELATION Liberal News 4.09 Conservative News 6.37 http://datascience.berkeley.edu/data-media-map-bitly/ 5 10 The middle graphic is from a Berkley study that measured the political bias of popular news media. Similarly, our interview questions were designed to measure individuals views of the Michael Brown case in relation to their favorite news outlet. Each interviewee gave a rank of 0-10 with 0 being an opinion that the officer was guilty without a doubt and 10 being the officer being completely innocent. Sidenote: We are not done interviewing individuals so these results are a work in progress. Those with a favorite news outlet that is considered liberal have their responses shown here in blue, and those with a favorite news outlet that is considered conservative is shown in red. Their averages, unsurprisingly, show liberal news watchers to believe that the Michael Brown shooting was unjust and conservative news watchers to believe that the shooting was justified. Within our study it is difficult to draw a direct line between cause and effect. Do these individuals consume certain news media because it is aligned with their beliefs, or does the news actually alter their opinions on controversial, racial topics. One thing is for certain: the news provides subtle hints designed to direct us towards targeted opinions and it is important for us, as consumers, to make our own thoughtful opinions. Officer Guilty Without Doubt Neutral (No Opinion) Officer Completely Innocent

WORKS CITED http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/01/ferguson-struggles-to-understand-move-to-violence/70120308/ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30185686 http://datascience.berkeley.edu/data-media-map-bitly/ http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/11/14/are-liberal-news-outlets-begging-for-race-riot-in-ferguson/ http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/ferguson-missouri-town-under-siege-after-police-shooting.html?_r=1 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/10/21/the_ferguson_farce_124366.html