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On Language and Media
It looks like an American Spring. People are protesting in the midst of a pandemic, risking disease for civil rights. However, we have to be careful of using this term though, since Occupy Wall Street was seen like that as well. In my mind, this is a continuation of long-standing frustrations, and crisis, that the pandemic brought into sharp relief. While overtly the protests are about police brutality, it’s slowly expanding its focus into other issues. After all, police brutality is a symptom of a much larger story. This story includes deep inequality and access to medical care,
It is also clear that the early days of these protests saw plenty of disorder and what looked like police violence. This left editors, reporters, and media outlets with a choice. Should we use the word riot? What about the word thug? Both are replete with both mental frames and troubled history. Both have been used, without a second thought, for many decades, so not surprisingly most media used them in some form or another. However, most editors, and reporters, rarely question words we use. We in the media, whether it’s large or small, rarely ask about our own blind spots and biases. This is why we need to be conscious of both the words we use and the images we run.
While the nation is having conversations about defunding the police, reforming the police, structural racism, and other issues, it’s time we…