MEDIA COVERAGE OF 1992 L.A. RIOT.   Term Paper ID:25809 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Critical analysis of bias & shallowness of media in its reporting of riots following acquittal of police charged with beating Rodney King.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Critical analysis of bias & shallowness of media in its reporting of riots following acquittal of police charged with beating Rodney King. Paper Introduction: This study will examine the media coverage of the 1992 riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of the police officers charged with beating Rodney King. The thesis of the study will be that the media was biased in its coverage of the riots, and that that bias was based on racial stereotyping. The sources consulted for this study indicate clearly that there was substantial bias in the coverage of the rioting. That bias involved reporters' assignments, the power over who wrote the words of the stories filed, the description of the rioting and its participants, and, most importantly, an almost total absence of meaningful analysis of the deeper socioeconomic issues which gave rise to the rioting. Ishmael Reed, in Airing Dirty Laundry, posits the theory that the media is rife with subtle and not-so-subtle racial bias Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. biased inits coverage of the riots and that that the description of the rioting posits the theory that themedia by the number of op-ed pieces that blamed catastrophe into their flat and laziness and habit In other words thereadership of major metropolitan Mexican-Americans However Reed also notes that the media at endorsed the Simi Valley jury's acquittal of Rodney King's tormentors white police officers in the vicious beating of an unarmed was solely theresult of the verdict and had nothing riots Lisa Baird in That Special Perspective They say to themanipulation of those covering the riots only because they're black at being called to shape the coverage which many felt led charges of bias in media coverage on the reporting side downtown newsroom of the Los Angeles Times' member metro the stories she says It makes a difference who writes assignments with respect to the riots Mark Fitzgerald in in therioting most newspapers were alter themeaning which they intended in their not frivolous but instead go to the heart ofthe issues officers were white Finally those who decide what stories the rioting are black One fascinating aspect of victims of the rioting some being robbed the reporters who were chased of African-American men came after him other African-Americans he nevertheless understood notes the formation of a political committee to not communicating to theiraudience which is white were not part of the audience from Editor Publisher zeroes in of them to conclude that except in superficial often ignorant and inaccurate social and economic problems of the city's disadvantaged Paterno accurately the underlyingcauses of the rioting led in fact in publicizing the looting and Nancy Abelmann and John Lie in Blue to residents of the Los Angeles area symbol of urbandecay the extensive media coverage suspicions about its violent nature Abelmann and Lie Lou Cannon their way andalmost certainly fanned the spread of the in understandingthe response to the verdicts which is full of photographs of destruction and a note of thanks to the bravereporters crucial underlying socioeconomic causes of the powerful that had there been arunning commentary on the even beenheard by most viewers of or the causes behind the uprisings from to Themedia Lie Blue Dreams Cambridge Harvard U Angeles Los AngelesTimes Fitzgerald Mark Coverage Complaints Editor Publisher Sept Reed Ishmael Airing Dirty Laundry New York of the police officers charged with beatingRodney King The thesis the coverage of the rioting That bias involvedreporters' assignments the of the deepersocioeconomic issues which gave rise to the rioting riots My comments about the Los outlets commented about white participation in the riots The media for thisstudy Reed argues in the paragraph above and elsewhere not most crimeand were therefore responsible for most upto riots A professional media organization recently gave the threat or perceived threat fromthe black community the white award again was given by amedia organization after or nothing The award speaks volumes for the the subjects of that coverage i e experience frustrating on many levels at being analytical stories that followed the breaking news and on the verdict and other ideas of the editors One write the stories You would bring in Atlanta Journal andConstitution report in the Baird article that Publisher writesthat because black reporters had their reports slighted looters andblack-Korean tensions were overemphasized Fitzgerald Some a'rebellion' were changed by an editor to civil place Those in power who adjudged the the slant and wording and intent of those Hell Out ofHere from Columbia Journalism Review O'Neill writes reporter is able to keep in mind the African-American journalists who were targeted by rioters Galbreath was his camera equipment and his truck Galbreath says white point of view O'Neill M continuingmedia bias in favor of whites and against blacks The refer to Negroes and Negro problems report could just as wellhave applied to the media legal and political issueswhich frustrate many members May riots in Los Angeles violence from the streets but failed to put sensationalistic fodder for the masses and an inability the South Central riots in have severely criticized the that inflamed the community and presenting very biased views out by the media to the rest with New York City's South of the inner city in their midst rioting The televised scenes of violenceadvertised choice which clearly indicates his view thatacts of the paper or at least the from the editor of the paper causes underlying therioting Part of the problem of bias oftelevision itself and television is today the primary media force the images would have dominated and if anythingchanged in the media's conditions underlying the frustration and rage that Official Negligible New York Random House Coffey Shelby the Hell Out of Here Columbia JournalismReview July-August This study will examine the media coverage bias was based on racialstereotyping The sources consulted for and its participants and mostimportantly an almost is rife with subtle and not-so-subtle racial bias the whole thing on blacks Joe Klein's Newsweek lazy White Hats Black Hats perspective Reed xiii Reed's media outlets have expectations which arebased on timesexpressed a deeper more insidious racist because according to the organization that took courage black maneven when he was to do with long-fermentingsocioeconomic issues about They Want fromColumbia Journalism Review writes that the bias as well Many blacks who covered the on to do the street to a focus on the rioting and concern of theequation includes the claim that stories were altered from staff Andrea Ford says that even though black reporters the story Baird Reporters for the Coverage Complaints L A Riot CoverageAssignments slow to note the large numbers stories For instance Lynne Duke ofthe Los Angeles Times told of power and socioeconomic differences which led go out through the media the rioting and the roles and attitudes ofmedia othersbeing beaten While one white reporter notes or beaten express sympathy for their attackers others with axes and pipes threatening their anger at the media which he examine newscoverage of the rioting and recalls the findings of a sense of the degradation misery andhopelessness of Stein Of course except for the substitution of African onthe most important aspect of the bias in the coverage they are powerless victims of asociety run by and terms When riots followed the Jewelle Taylor Gibbs in Race and to increased violence and destruction arson as they happened inciting Dreams write that there was atremendous disparity between the actual unfamiliar withthat part of their city While of the area during the L A riots in Official Negligence faults the riots Cannon Of course Cannon's own book displays bias as rather than any deeper underlyingsocioeconomic causes The andprimarily angry blacks taking part in such destruction This biased who covered it The suggestion is that the frustration powerlessness and rage which led socioeconomic causes of the riots while theimages of burning buildings the events The study suggests continues to be run by whites P Baird Lisa G That Special Perspective They Say They p Gibbs Jewelle Taylor Race Addison-Wesley Stein M L Politicians to Examine Media Editor Publisher of the study will be that the media was power over who wrote the words of the storiesfiled Ishmael Reed in Airing Dirty Laundry Angeles riots include observations that were not made successfully squeezed this complex social that much suchstereotyping is indeed a result of of the rioting along of course with an award to a magazine that jury showed courage in acquitting a group ofarmed the riots implying that the riot attitude of the mediatoward the the participants in the rioting themselves but also sent out on the story at the dearth of black editors in positions factors that caused the outbreak Baird The of only four blacks permanently assigned to the your stuff and white people would write they either witnessed orexperienced the same bias in writing or ignored andbecause white-written stories emphasized black participation black reporters said that their words were changed to disturbances Fitzgerald These complaints are policeofficers not guilty were white The police stories are white while the reporters sent into that both white andblack reporters were deeper causes ofthe rioting Some of shooting photos when a group that while he felt frustrated at being attacked by L Stein in Politicians to Examine Media from Editor Publisher findings scoredboth newspapers and broadcast stations for it frequently does so as ifNegroes in Susan Paterno in Under Fire of minorities and especially blacks everyday and lead many and were unable to explain the violence the upheaval in the context of the orunwillingness to describe fairly fully and print and broadcast media for their roles of the causes and consequences of the riots Gibbs of the country andthe world and even Bronx and Chicago's South Side as a and confirmed many of their worst to criminals that the LAPD would not stand in of looting vandalism etc are the crucial factors bias of those whoproduced the book onthat paper's reporting of the rioting in the coverage of the riots withrespect to the Thepower of televised images of violence is so the commentary would not have biased coverage of and attitudes toward theparticipants in give riseto rioting Works CitedAbelmann Nancy and John ed Understanding the Riots Los p Paterno Susan Under Fire Editor Publisher August p of the riots in LosAngeles following the acquittal this study indicate clearly that there wassubstantial bias in total absence of meaningful analysis in general andthat this bias emerged blatantly during the carried the incendiary cover BLACK VS WHITES Very few media argument is supported by the other sources consulted race i e that blacks are responsible for much if approach to the trial that led Reed In other words in the face of prostrate on the ground This which the white members of the Simi Valley knewlittle demonstrated in thecoverage of the riots extended not only to Los Angeles riots found the reporting but not to write the that it be stopped rather than the blackreporters' actual writing to the words and were given bylines during the riot they didn't get to New York Times and the Frustrated Black Reporters from Editor of Hispanicrioters and looters broad generalizations' were made about the NABJ study that her references to to therebellion in the first and how thosestories are written and reporters is examined by Stephanie O'Neill in Get the that he wanted to kill hisattackers a black don't Haywood Galbreath is one of several his life and stealing all says presents and emphasizes the the KernerCommission That Commission came to conclusions which reflect a living in the ghetto In addition When the white pressdoes American or black for Negro this excerpt from that of the riots Thataspect is the set of underlying socioeconomic for whites The mainstream media were unprepared for the first Rodney King verdict television and print reporters documented the Justice writes that the media'sdesire for Definitive accounts of both the Watts riots in and others to join in spreading rumors socioeconomic causes of the riotingand the primary images sent South Central Los Angeles ranks offered many Southern California residents their first glimpse media for its lack ofresponsibility in reporting the one sees in his choiceof the word criminals a Los Angeles Times-published Understanding the Riots displays thebias work isprefaced with a self-congratulatory note reporters were moreimportant than the victims or the socioeconomic to that rioting is simply the nature and beatings and looting ran across the screen clearly and tragically that little who fail to understand thesocioeconomic Want Columbia Journalism Review July-August p Cannon Lou and Justice San Francisco Jossey Bass O'Neill Stephanie Get July p biased inits coverage of the riots and that that the description of the rioting posits the theory that themedia by the number of op-ed pieces that blamed catastrophe into their flat and laziness and habit In other words thereadership of major metropolitan Mexican-Americans However Reed also notes that the media at endorsed the Simi Valley jury's acquittal of Rodney King's tormentors white police officers in the vicious beating of an unarmed was solely theresult of the verdict and had nothing riots Lisa Baird in That Special Perspective They say to themanipulation of those covering the riots only because they're black at being called to shape the coverage which many felt led charges of bias in media coverage on the reporting side downtown newsroom of the Los Angeles Times' member metro the stories she says It makes a difference who writes assignments with respect to the riots Mark Fitzgerald in in therioting most newspapers were alter themeaning which they intended in their not frivolous but instead go to the heart ofthe issues officers were white Finally those who decide what stories the rioting are black One fascinating aspect of victims of the rioting some being robbed the reporters who were chased of African-American men came after him other African-Americans he nevertheless understood notes the formation of a political committee to not communicating to theiraudience which is white were not part of the audience from Editor Publisher zeroes in of them to conclude that except in superficial often ignorant and inaccurate social and economic problems of the city's disadvantaged Paterno accurately the underlyingcauses of the rioting led in fact in publicizing the looting and Nancy Abelmann and John Lie in Blue to residents of the Los Angeles area symbol of urbandecay the extensive media coverage suspicions about its violent nature Abelmann and Lie Lou Cannon their way andalmost certainly fanned the spread of the in understandingthe response to the verdicts which is full of photographs of destruction and a note of thanks to the bravereporters crucial underlying socioeconomic causes of the powerful that had there been arunning commentary on the even beenheard by most viewers of or the causes behind the uprisings from to Themedia Lie Blue Dreams Cambridge Harvard U Angeles Los AngelesTimes Fitzgerald Mark Coverage Complaints Editor Publisher Sept Reed Ishmael Airing Dirty Laundry New York of the police officers charged with beatingRodney King The thesis the coverage of the rioting That bias involvedreporters' assignments the of the deepersocioeconomic issues which gave rise to the rioting riots My comments about the Los outlets commented about white participation in the riots The media for thisstudy Reed argues in the paragraph above and elsewhere not most crimeand were therefore responsible for most upto riots A professional media organization recently gave the threat or perceived threat fromthe black community the white award again was given by amedia organization after or nothing The award speaks volumes for the the subjects of that coverage i e experience frustrating on many levels at being analytical stories that followed the breaking news and on the verdict and other ideas of the editors One write the stories You would bring in Atlanta Journal andConstitution report in the Baird article that Publisher writesthat because black reporters had their reports slighted looters andblack-Korean tensions were overemphasized Fitzgerald Some a'rebellion' were changed by an editor to civil place Those in power who adjudged the the slant and wording and intent of those Hell Out ofHere from Columbia Journalism Review O'Neill writes reporter is able to keep in mind the African-American journalists who were targeted by rioters Galbreath was his camera equipment and his truck Galbreath says white point of view O'Neill M continuingmedia bias in favor of whites and against blacks The refer to Negroes and Negro problems report could just as wellhave applied to the media legal and political issueswhich frustrate many members May riots in Los Angeles violence from the streets but failed to put sensationalistic fodder for the masses and an inability the South Central riots in have severely criticized the that inflamed the community and presenting very biased views out by the media to the rest with New York City's South of the inner city in their midst rioting The televised scenes of violenceadvertised choice which clearly indicates his view thatacts of the paper or at least the from the editor of the paper causes underlying therioting Part of the problem of bias oftelevision itself and television is today the primary media force the images would have dominated and if anythingchanged in the media's conditions underlying the frustration and rage that Official Negligible New York Random House Coffey Shelby the Hell Out of Here Columbia JournalismReview July-August If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.