Part 1: Situation Definition
The case that I decided to write about is the death of Tamir Rice. Rice was a 12 year old boy from Cleveland who was shot by Timothy Loehmann. Rice was spotted holding a BB gun outside of a recreational center, and a witness called into the police station stating there was a boy that was pointing a gun at people in the area. This caused Loehmann to step out his car when he arrived, and shoot the boy without hesitation. In a case study conducted by Akiv Dawson, he explains how news outlets are using colorblind racism when covering stories like Rice. While it gives us an insight on the racial climate in America, it points out that colorblind racism is pervasive in journalism (Dawson, 300).
Part 2: Analysis
Colorblind racism is defined as a dominant racial ideology of “post racial America” (Dawson, 300). Dawson explains that in cases such as Tamir Rice, the coverage is primarily from a white perspective and focusing on the individuals, instead of the social issue instead (Dawson, 301). This is a prime example of colorblind racism, and it translates to print news as well. In print news, the primary focus of coverage is on the homicide of police officers and these articles focus on the proper course of action that was taken by the police officers (Dawson, 301). Dawson explains that the problem with this is that the audience is being persuaded by these articles in a manner that shapes a consumers interpretation on the subject (Dawson, 301). Dawson notes that in a case study by Dowler and Zawilski in 2007 found minorities to believe that fellow white men receive better treatment from police officers, but did not note a difference in people of color (Dawson, 302).
Dawson made another point about the importance of opinion-editorials within the newspapers. These allow for an individual to look at the story from another angle, and become less objective than a regular news article. This allows readers to see another view on the matter. Therefore, Dawson states that opinion-editorials are a place for colorblind journalism to be challenged, which is vital to all (Dawson, 302).
In a study by Kim Fridkin, Amanda Wintersieck, Jillian Courey, and Joshua Thompson, they focused on media portrayal with police brutality. While they don’t focus on colorblind journalism like Dawson, they focus on other issues. One similarity between the two case studies is that they both agree that the news media can have an effect on the public on how they view certain controversial topics. In Fridkin’s study, a point of emphasis was that 45% of respondents said that they view police brutality as a serious problem (Fridkin, 3394). Therefore, since a large majority view police brutality with minorities as an issue, it would be difficult for new information to sway their opinions, as they most likely have a decent amount of background knowledge on the matter (Fridkin, 3395).
To translate this back to the Tamir Rice case, with the issue of colorblind journalism and pre-determined bias, it’s difficult to change the opinions of either the news organizations or citizens in general. Each have their view of the matter and the new information would have little effect on either to change their mind.
Part 3: Conclusion
My opinion on this topic is that while the media focuses on the police brutality side of the spectrum, I believe that it’s wrong that cops have a bad stigma. While some cops have acted unethically, not all cops have done so. Therefore, to me, it bothers me when terms like “all cops are pigs” are used. Police should be people that we should feel comforted by, not afraid of, and it’s unethical to stereotype cops as this.
However, I do believe that it is important to bring up ideas like colorblind journalism, as it allows to see the side of police brutality from another angle. One thing that I learned from this is that I never really thought about it from the other side and never knew what the term colorblind journalism was before researching it. With police brutality and cases like Tamir Rice in the news far too often, it’s critical for others to understand what is being said from both sides, in order for us to work together and understand where each of us is coming from.
Part 4: References
Dawson, A. (2018). A space for countering colorblind discourse: constructions of police- perpetrated homicides of African-American males. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 35(3), 300–302.
https://doi-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1080/
Fridkin, K., Wintersieck, A., Courey, J., & Thompson, J. (2017). Race and Police Brutality: The Importance of Media Framing. International Journal of Communication (19328036), 11, 3394-3395.
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