Media Coverage of Homicides Essay

This paper will be covering the controversial case of the shooting of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman. This was a polarizing trial for it pitted gun rights activists against gun-control activists and people who were generally against the new gun rhetoric that is in Florida. George Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch for the gated community and would always do his job diligently. However, one night he witnessed someone in a grey hoodie walking on the sidewalk wearing a hoodie. Zimmerman thought this person was suspicious and continued to follow him. After Zimmerman called in that he was following this individual, he was told not to leave his vehicle. Instead, he followed the person into who knows where and the rest of the story is up for debate. The defense team stated that Trayvon had jumped out of the bushes and begun to attack Zimmerman violently to the point where he felt that his life was in danger. The prosecution believed that Zimmerman had initiated a fight with Trayvon and he was at the mercy of Zimmerman at gunpoint for a significant amount of time.

The media played a large role in narrating the story of how and why the boy’s death occurred. Giroux uses the term “privatized discourse” in discussing the treatment of the case within American media and culture. “...Dangerous because they invoke wider social considerations and prevent [them] from wallowing in a purely privatized discourse that, in the end, for instance, only allows [them] to focus on the most narrow and restricted of issues such as the personality of the shooter, George Zimmerman” (Giroux 2**). The preceding quote highlights one of Giroux’s main focuses, the tendency for the public

In the article, Everything you think you know about the death of Michael Brown is wrong, and the man who killed him admits it, written by Michael Harriot from The Root, the author uses evidence directly from the Michael Brown case and demonstrates that he sides with Brown by constantly attacking the police officer’s claims of being guilt free. While McCoy’s article castigates the unreasonable decision to fire upon Brown by placing a huge emphasis on Wilson’s discrimination against African Americans through the usage of unclear evidence and straw man, Pearce’s article presents the event in a neutral tone by utilizing testimonies from witnesses; In Harriot’s article, the author conveys bias perspective towards Wilson’s story as shown through authority. Consequently, this emphasises the necessity for the audience to observe both sides of the situation and judge with a calm rational mind in order to differentiate the falsities from the media to

On February 26, 2012, an apparently innocent teenager was shot as he walked home through his neighborhood late at night. The Trayvon Martin killing and trial has recently been one of the primary topics covered by the media in America. The response to the news coverage of the case has been staggering. Students have organized hoodie marches and created Facebook groups to protest the unjustified murder of the young man. However, is the American public as well informed as it pretends to be? Americans have an unsettling susceptibility to manipulation from the media. In 1991, a similar event occurred in the case of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, where Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas, had his personal affairs put on display for

Naive or elderly individuals, depending on what world they live, prefer to read anything that provides them to challenge or approve with the article if they overlook the article as unique or not. Since then, extremely biased articles contain flawed information that interrogate the opinions of each individuals. Michael Brown, a youthful eighteen year old African American college student was shot dead by a white officer named WIlson. Michael’s death evoke an outrage towards the public, debating who triggered Michael’s death. One source states that Wilson shot Michael because Michael threaten Wilson, while another source states that Wilson threaten him so he shot him.

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)

Our group chose to do the highly debatable case regarding George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. Based on the various parts from group members, it would seem we have both sides of the case so there will be discussion from either point of view. Our paper is not going to sway the reader in either direction, but simply state the facts for each side and give an overview of the case from our perspective.

George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, resulting in a national uproar on racial profiling and civil rights. Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder. He was also acquitted of manslaughter, a lesser charge. After a few weeks of testimony, the jury excluded the prosecution’s contention that Mr. Zimmerman had intentionally pursued Mr. Martin because he assumed the teenager was a felonious person and instigated the fight that led to his death. In reality, Zimmerman targeted Trayvon Martin simply because of his appearance. “The bullet that passed between them silenced a child but ignited a nation,” (Blow 1). Some people declare this just another way of silencing or putting down the others that aren’t meeting their standards or

The article continues to talk about how African American serial killers receive less media attention than white offenders. There were two examples shown in the article of two similar serial murders. One done by a white man and one done by a black man in Philadelphia. The 3 murders done by the white man received national attention, he had a book written about him and was even mentioned in the movie Silence of the Lambs. The 7-murders done by the black guy was never heard of outside Philadelphia.

Until February 2012, many Americans most likely had most likely never heard of Sanford, Florida. Even in the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman on February 26, media attention was mostly contained to the local area (Banesh, 2014). Although Martin’s family contacted civil rights attorney Ben Crump two days after Martin’s death, it was not until March 5, 2012 that Crump and his partner contacted a publicist to develop a media strategy (Trotta, 2012). Two days later Reuters ran a story about the case and it was picked up by other media sources, sparking nationwide interest and igniting a media frenzy.

First, it is important to see just how bad black victims are represented in the media as opposed to white suspects or killers. In Alabama, 2010, Amy Bishop, who at the time worked at the University of Alabama, shot and killed three colleagues and further wounded another three because her job was coming to an end. How she was represented in the media however was not as a cold blooded killer, rather the headline stated “Ala. Shooting Suspect Brilliant, But Social Misfit” (Anon, 2015). Whereas black victims are often slandered, a headline announcing the murder of Gregory Allen Ross read “Police: Slain Lakeland Teen Had Been Shot Before; Death Possibly Drug-Related” (Allen, 2014) the following media accounts thought it was relevant to tell the world about his past arrests and the fact that he had been shot before as what could only be their uninformed guess at why he was murdered, despite none of these details bearing any relevance to the story or the situation. This may seem almost unbelievable, nut it is happening every day in the United States of America.

❖ Leadership: When doing a high profile investigation many problems arise in leadership. They are faces with pressures from victims’ families, media as well as political executives. The main goal is to catch the offender and arrest and prosecute them. They all agree that the cases should be handled by homicide investigators who know how to work the case and that supervisor need to intervene with higher up personnel.

The United States has been a world leader in homicide for centuries. Indeed, “since the early 19th century ...[America has been] the most homicidal country in the Western world” and holds that title today (Kelley, 2009). In a 2007-2008 list of 31 nations, only two nations, Mexico and Chile, had higher homicide rates (Comparison, 2010). Nations with higher populations, such as India and China have fewer homicides (Comparison, 2010). Further, a nation such as Japan, which has a lower population but a higher population density then the United States, has one of the world’s lowest homicide rates (Comparison, 2010). Population size and density, therefore, cannot be the chief reasons for this nation’s higher homicide rates.

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.

The public depends on the news media for its understanding of crime. Reportedly three quarters (76%) of the public say, they form their opinions about crime from what they see or read in the news (Dorfman & Schiraldi, 2001). After reviewing five hours of reality crime television shows, one is left with a very dismal look on society and a prejudice towards minorities as they are largely depicted as the perpetrators of crime. This new genre commonly referred to as reality television appears to be sweeping the nation by storm. Opinions vary, depending on whom you ask, to what extent reality plays a role versus the selling of a product. Sensationalism, advertising, ratings hype, profiling and fear all comprise the mass