One Sided Media???
How Media Portrays
You watch the T.V news, and you're like, oh my god, all the protests are riots. It's basically a one narrative shift. "We're not gonna pay attention to the protesters in the city wrecked by this violence who are marching peacefully and chanting George Floyd. Which is going to gain more attention? A group of 35 people standing, chanting names, singing a song doing the cupid shuffle, as one of the protest groups doing that or the five people on the ground bleeding and screaming crying throwing rocks. Our press is driven by eyeballs and attention and clicks and advertising and raising anxiety and the anxiety of viewers. Dramatic images are money. They keep eyeballs on the screen. So they will continuously show action, you need to understand the limitations of those visuals. There is not enough conversation about the roots of the protests. What they are showing you is what's happening right now on the ground. Those visuals cannot tell you the entire historical context that has led to that scene on the ground. One thing that a lot of mainstream media doesn't do well gives you that full context. You can't untangle this moment from where we are just in this year starting with February, with the coronavirus, Ahmaud Arberys lynching, having people in the shelter in place, having people become angry that they are in a shelter in place orders, having the economy significantly slow down. There are so many events, just since January that led up to this moment, not to mention the hundreds of years before that. This becomes a very complicated story. Who is to blame for the violence? It is crazy that when we talk about the destruction of property.
By: Ricksel Penullar