Monday, December 1, 2014

The Listening Post - Ferguson : Riots, race and the media





The Listening Post examines the news coverage of race in the US; plus, fonts and the news media.

When a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the media descended on the St Louis suburb once again. Race issues took centre stage on America's televisions and in its newspapers.

But many voices accused the mainstream media of giving too much prominence to the potential for violence and not enough to the decision itself. Young black Americans used #BlackTwitter to take journalists to task on their coverage and provide their own version of the truth. Even US President Barack Obama and the prosecutor in the case had critical words for the media.

Talking to us about the Ferguson story this week are: Malkia Cyril, founder and executive director of the Center for Media Justice who has led a number of campaigns for racial and economic justice; journalist Mikki Kendall who writes about race and feminist issues; veteran journalist Richard Prince, from the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. Prince is known for a landmark complaint he brought against discriminatory practices at the Washington Post in 1972; and Sarah Kendzior, a reporter and anthropologist who has been named the best online journalist in St Louis.

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