Analyzing Media Coverage of “Black Lives Matter” Movement

2020 will undoubtedly mark a significant year for the history books. With a worldwide pandemic, the death of George Floyd, and an upcoming presidential election happening all in the same year, the call to action for every American citizen has never been more important. The summer was marked by a rising movement of advocacy calling for social change, but with the pandemic of coronavirus impacting how people communicate with each other, many of these calls for action took place online. Social movements fueled by social media are not new, and with the pandemic forcing people into their homes, people are left quarantining with alot of time on their hands. All eyes are watching what’s going on in the news even more than usual since they have real-time access, and much of the news we receive are from media outlets, so it is imperative for us to be aware of our own perspective.

This year has seen many demonstrations and protests across the country following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. According to an analysis of closed captioning data of cable news broadcasts from the TV News Archive by Dhrumil Mehta, a database journalist at FiveThirtyEight, the media hasn’t paid much attention to protests against police brutality or misconduct over the last few years compared to 2020. In protest situations, in television news, the cameras are rolling and concentrating more on the action, rather than discussing the fundamental problems under discussion, or the reasons for the protest. That can be attributed to it requiring more time and effort to cover things thematically (issue-specific), rather than to report on events as they are happening. This indicates that mass media prefer to concentrate on a protest ‘s brutality and violence rather than the substance. That mentality and approach must change.