Journalism - Research Paper Example

Both of the victims had criminal records and were not armed at the time of their deaths in the hands of police officers. A white police officer killed Michael Brown, a black teenager, while a Black police officer killed Taylor; a White who was two years older than Mr. Brown was, two days later. Understanding the cases as inter racial conflict would attract equal media criticism and coverage in a bid to condemn the conflict. Perceiving Taylor’s case as retaliation against the murder of a Black unarmed man by a White police officer could have even elicited greater reaction to Taylor’s murder but this was not the case.

Responses to Taylor’s murder, posted days apart, illustrate the under-coverage or media blackout that the case received. A post, on a Thursday, criticized the liberal media for failing cover the story and another social media post, on a Sunday, noted that limited information had been published on the killer and no arrest had been made. This is contrary to feelings that one person expressed that like the Brown case, people, and the media, by implication, needed to be angry over the Taylor murder (Richardson, 2014).

The Brown case was considered an outlier and explains bias of the media because data shows that intra-racial crimes are more than inter racial crimes for Blacks and Whites, an observation that suggests that an incident of inter racial crime should not attract extreme levels of reaction. A crime in which the victim and the criminal are from the same race should therefore attract greater media attention for criticism and inter racial crimes in which the offenders are from different races should attract similar levels of criticism.

While the Ferguson case attracted global mainstream media and serious riots, the Utah case attracted minimal riots that only the local media covered. The media is also blamed for a possible active role in fueling the Ferguson riots that escalated racial tension and promoted the false