Media coverage and Ferguson

I am from Saint Louis, Miss. I was born there, and I spent most of my childhood and adolescence coming to terms with the mess of contradictions and issues that form the core of the city that I identify as home, while still trying to open my eyes to what makes this “flyover city” special.

I am not from Ferguson specifically; I am from another suburb that helps compose the series of rings around Saint Louis’ largely rundown nucleus. I do not speak on behalf of the residents of Ferguson, for I can never truly know how the community must feel in the wake of the tragedy that was Michael Brown’s death. As a young woman from a neighborhood not 20 minutes away, however, I can only begin to list off all the parts of this summer that enraged and saddened me.

One of the things that most makes my blood boil over is the way in which certain sectors of the media began to cover Michael Brown’s death and Ferguson’s response, and how this is indicative of the state of our media in general. That is not to say, as I have heard in coffee shops, restaurants and pharmacies all over the city, that everyone should just get out and let the situation resolve itself in peace. Saint Louis’ longstanding issues of inequality, segregation and racism are no secret and form the basis for many of its seemingly unrelated problems today, in a way that resonates with other cities across the nation. No, the media should not stop covering these unpalatable issues. The statistics about racial profiling and police brutality need to be published on the front cover of the country’s most influential newspapers. Pictures of militarized men and women in uniform confronting people exercising fundamental rights need to be seen.

However, there are other details of the situation in Ferguson that should be covered as well, and the language used in and focus of future coverage need to shift.

First off, Michael Brown’s death should be mourned regardless of whether or not that was him in the video of the shoplifting. He should be mourned regardless of whether or not he was planning on attending college the following Monday. He should be mourned regardless of whether or not he drank and smoked pot. He was an unarmed man who was shot and lost his life, and for this reason he should be mourned. No one deserves to be shot six times and left on the sidewalk for four hours. I have no doubt that he was a wonderful person from everything that his family and friends have said in the wake of this tragedy; I am simply saying that his parents should not have to testify as such to keep the media from calling their late son’s morality into question. I call upon the media to stop “bringing to light” evidence that Michael Brown was “no angel” — an expression used to describe him in a New York Times article published on Aug. 24.It doesn’t matter. It matters neither in this specific case, nor in any others.

In a loosely related vein, I also call upon the media to stop its emphasis on the lootings and waves of teargas, and to reevaluate its priorities should a similar situation arise in the months and years to come. Yes, these are components of the constantly evolving situation, but there are so many other dimensions that you miss if you are only searching for the next Molotov cocktail. You fail to notice the volunteers flooding in daily from the wider Saint Louis community to help clean the streets and supply essential items to residents. You overlook the demographics of those committing the violence — many of them are not from Ferguson itself. You neglect the core issues at hand that led to Michael Brown’s death, and you do not supply as much pressure on the power structure of the area to resolve what truly happened and supply some modicum of justice to all involved.

Again, I don’t call upon the media to vanish, to leave Florissant Avenue altogether and ignore dominant issues of our society as a whole. I call upon the media to reflect upon how it paints individuals across class and race and to do better in the future. I call upon the media to focus on the larger picture, or at least the most important parts of a specific narrative, rather than succumbing to the temptation of providing sensationalist minute-by-minute analysis of violence. I don’t have all — or any, for that matter — of the answers, but I can offer this small suggestion for a future in which the entirety of our nation continues to navigate the issues that continue to plague it. I can and will offer my condolences to Michael Brown’s friends and family. May he rest in peace.

Kelly Hatfield is a sophomore from Medford, Mass. She can be reached at kellych@princeton.edu.