We look at the divisive and sensationalist media coverage of the mass shooting; plus, the rise of social news videos. As televised news events go, it had a touch of the surreal about it. Two days after the San Bernardino mass shooting, scores of reporters stormed into the home of Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, …
Tag: listening post
Dec 06 2015
High crimes and media misdemeanours
On November 24, a Russian fighter jet was shot down by Turkish forces. This much we know. But beyond that, the facts are slippery, the coverage compromised and the narratives politically loaded. Ankara says the jet violated Turkish airspace, whereas Moscow insists that Turkey shot down its plane over Syrian territory. The messages, which present …
Nov 22 2015
Double standards in the Paris attacks coverage
We examine whether there’s a double standard for victims of terrorism; plus, fixers: the unsung heroes of journalism. As news of the attacks in Paris was breaking, Facebook launched a feature allowing its users to “check-in” and let their family members and friends know they were safe. It also introduced a feature that allowed users …
Nov 15 2015
The Russian plane crash and the battle of narratives
We examine the conflicting media reports of the Russian plane disaster in Egypt; plus, the rise of automated journalism. When a Russian-operated airline went down in Sinai on October 31, killing all 224 on board, it drew together Russia, the UK and Egypt in what has now become a battle over the airwaves to contain …
Aug 25 2014
Ferguson and the media
Listening Post examines racial conflict and social divisions in the US and how those issues are reported.
Ferguson, Missouri – a dateline that rarely drops on the global news wire. But this week, small-town America was put under the international media spotlight after a black teenager, Michael Brown, was killed on August 9 by a white policeman.
When US journalists do hostile environment training, they usually have foreign conflicts at the back of their minds. This one was right on their doorstep. Because this week, the Midwest turned into a warzone – and the post-racial America story arc just took a turn for the worse.
Helping us to understand how the media reported Ferguson are: Mikki Kendall, a writer; Lizz Brown, a columnist for the St Louis American; Byron Tau, a reporter for Politico; Rashad Robinson, the executive director of Color of Change; and Ash-har Quraishi, a correspondent for Al Jazeera America.
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