Zimmermans Verdict: Find a Frame - Essay Example

?Zimmerman’s verdict – Find a Frame Case The burning topic that is being followed widely around the world is the trial of George Zimmerman. He, the Florida man was charged with second degree murdering of Trayvon Martin a 17 year old boy by gun-shot on April 11, 2012. Zimmerman is found not guilty. This is the verdict that jurors reached this weekend leaving many people scratching their heads to get a grip on the logic and explanation behind the court’s decision. Zimmerman also showed no emotion after the verdict. He shook his hand with on of his lawyers and smiled slightly. In the last few days, people from around the country gathered in SANFORD city like migrant birds to witness the verdict. Although, the majority believed Zimmerman was guilty and were expecting a justice through his prosecution, they were also aware of the lack of evidences in the case that could be sufficient to prove that Zimmerman was guilty. So, after the verdict was announced, the protesters outside the courtyard were stunned in silence but were not surprised. Since then, several protest march and rallies are being held all around the country including the New York City. Known figures from different backgrounds in the country are coming up with their reactions including the president of United States, Barack Obama. The president of NAACP, Benjamin Todd Jealous have started a petition appealing for Federal charges. The five week trial of Zimmerman was held in Florida, the same city where Trayvon was killed. More than 50 witnesses were testified during the trial and every moment of the final day was nationally televised and reported by media. Under Florida law, jurors were asked to decide whether Zimmerman had justified reasons to use the deadly force in a circumstance that could bring him death or other heavy bodily harm. With the lack of proper evidences and poor deliveries of the witnesses, Zimmerman was acquitted from the charge based on the ground of self defense in extreme situation. Over the three weeks of testimony jurors received several conflicting evidences that caused the case drawing everyone’s concern towards it. On the rainy night of February 2012, Zimmerman spotted Martin approaching toward his townhouse when Zimmerman did not recognize him and started following him despite his neighboring officers’ advice to stay in his vehicle and that they were coming. There was a physical clash between the two and the fight ended with Zimmerman shooting a bullet through Martin’s heart who was visiting the place of his father’s fiancee coming from Florida (Ford, 2013; Alcindor, 2013; Schneider, 2013). About the Media outlets In measuring the perceptions of media bias in the final series of poll, Associate press is perceived as being tilted to the left while reporting the news. Sonoma State University in their new study reveals that a widespread bias is observed in their news reports, which reflects favor towards the US government positions. The associated press is a cooperative news wire service, which is non profit in nature. The AP has worldwide 242 bureaus with its 3700 employees. It delivers reports 24 hours a day in 5 languages including English, Dutch, German, French and Spanish and in 121 countries. AP reaches over a billion people everyday via print, radio or television. AP is an institutionalized bureaucracy, which is massive and shares news stories to almost every radio/TV station and newspapers in the United States. Because of their huge size the down to top control of a single news story is impossible practically. However several researches clearly imply a built-in bias of the Associate Press for the US government officials. These biases are absorbed by American people and they make their political decisions standing on the skewed understanding of politics. The democracy might face a dismal future if the media systems do not provide critical, fair and accurate reporting (Phillips, 2006). The Democrat perceptions regarding the CNN news outlet is high while the Republican perception about them is low. CNN is often referred by Republican jibes as “Clinton News Network” or even “Communist News Network” (Marzili, 2012). CNN distributes its news all over the world via TV/radio stations and through its own website as cnn.com. USA Today is debatably most widespread American newspaper and has both print and online publication. It distributes news to all the 50 states along with Canada, United Kingdom, Puerto Rica etc. The Associate Press coverage of Zimmerman murder case is framed with variation to capture the attention of the readers of its news. As discussed earlier, the article emphasizes on the technical part of the law to highlight the decision of the juries as a clean fair stand. It started with describing how the defendant Zimmerman had a solid path through the law itself to escape the prosecution. The article reported why he was not arrested in the first place. That is, Associate Press spotted the Florida law importantly to explain and establish the fact as a truth that Zimmerman shot in an extreme case of a life threatening situation. Although it said no jury agreed to make any comment in front of news channel after the verdict, it repeatedly explained the clear standing of US law by quoting the comments of several law persons in support of the verdict. The jury was a panel of six female with five whites and a minority- while it is reported in CNN and USA Today, Associate Press maintained a safe distance from this little detail of the news to avoid developing any impression among the people regarding any bias of the US law. Associate Press also quoted minimal number of reactions from public who are against the verdict in order to keep their neutral standing notion clean. To clear the verdict controversy in favour of court’s decision, Associate Press mentioned about the petition started by the president of NAACP appealing for the Federal charges and it also counter explained why the Federal charges were baseless to form. CNN, in its article regarding the same story of Zimmerman approached with a conflict frame initially highlighting the nation wide protest and reactions against the verdict. To show its multiple framing styles to cover the story, the article lined up with the past and future probable incidents of the case. CNN at the beginning explained briefly about what happened on February, 2012 by citing the fact that government clearly knew Zimmerman followed black Martin despite his neighboring officers’ instruction to stay in the car. This could raise a conflict in the reader’s mind against the US law officials. It also points down the fact of late reaction from US president regarding the murder case. In the fact and timeline of the case paragraph also it emphasized on the negative reactions of the verdict. It did not explain why Zimmerman was not arrested, which could provoke the agitators. On the verdict section, the panel of six female juries is reported and it is also mentioned that there were five white juries and a jury from minority. The fact can raise few questions in the readers’ minds regarding the bias in the decisions of law officials. The media laid its stress in the reaction part across the country. It very briefly quoted the Zimmerman’s brother and gave more importance to what the Martin family said. Again, it also reflected largely the president’s reaction to avoid the direct red eye of US govt. At the end it kept the light of hope alive in the protestor’s mind by stating how it is possible for US law department to keep Zimmerman under detention by the ways of civil law pursuit or civil rights suit (Ford, 2013). In the contrast of two different standings by CNN and Associate News, USA Today stands the storyline more neutrally. The general scenario of the country is pictured here. By equally giving importance to both the reactions around the nation and the reasons and logic behind the verdict, USA Today seems to follow bridge-building frame that is used by reporters to avoid any collision between two parties. In this article, USA Today tries to make a central stand and also tries to erase the conflict between Hispanic and Black. It tried to make a thorough explanation about how with the support of complicated law, Zimmerman is set free and that the Juries had no other options (Alcindor, 2013). Along with the statement of Zimmerman’s brother, an importance was also given to the saying of Martin’s family members. It sympathizes with the Martin family by quoting the Trayvon’s father’s soft reaction on twitter. Simultaneously it also respects the verdict of the court and to save Zimmerman’s attorney from becoming a villain by recording his statement after the verdict, who considers the death of Trayvon Martin as a tragedy and he said the whole incident is unfortunate. The noticeable fact of the reporting article was the equal importance was given to both Zimmerman’s side and Trayvon’s side in the subsequent paragraphs through explaining the laws, quoting the families of both and emphasizing the nationwide mixed reactions. The above discussion shows how framing is used for the same story published under different news outlets and this also reflect the basic characteristics of the media outlets (Huang, 2011). Associated Press news specifically insisted that the US law was unbiased as the case did not prove that it was a hate crime. CNN news specifically highlighted the race of the jury which shows how it is true to its label as the communist network and therefore is suggestive of the racial bias in the legal system of US. It can be said that USA Today has taken the most unbiased stand and maintained all the details at the same time and ensure that the right and unbiased information reaches the readers. References Alcindor, Y. (2013), George Zimmerman found not guilty, USA Today, on 15/07/2013 from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/13/george-zimmerman-found-not-guilty/2514163/ Ford, D. (2013), A verdict and more: Get caught up on the George Zimmerman case, CNN, retrieved on 15/07/2013 from http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/14/justice/zimmerman-recap/ Huang, T. (2011), Framing stories, retrieved on 15/07/2013 from http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/diversity-at-work/47657/framing-stories/ Marzili, T. (2012), Partisan Attitude to Fox and CNN but Bloomberg Perception Apolitical, Forbes, retrieved on July 15, 2013 from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brandindex/2012/08/17/partisan-attitude-to-fox-and-cnn-but-bloomberg-perception-apolitical/ Phillips, P. (2006), News Bias in the Associated Press, retrieved on 15/07/2013 from http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0722-21.htm Schneider, M. (2013), Jury instructions at the centre of Zimmerman’s verdict, The Washington Times, Associated Press, retrieved on 15/07/2013 from http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NEIGHBORHOOD_WATCH_LEGAL?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-14-19-02-31 Read More