#HandsUpDontShoot: Studying Coverage of Ferguson as a ‘Critical Incident’ from Journalism’s Recent Past

Abstract

For seventy years, gatekeeping theory has described how news sources, news institutions, and audiences impact the way information is distributed and consumed through mass media. But when a Black teenager, Michael Brown, was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, citizen accounts of him having his “hands up” quickly spread on social media, forcing journalists to acknowledge both the circumstances of the shooting and the role of social media in shaping the narrative. This historical study of the “recent past” considers how Brown’s shooting death served as a “critical incident” that forced journalists to reevaluate long-held practices in the face of citizen journalism on social media. Using textual analysis, this study examines local and national news coverage of the shooting and resulting protests, as well as subsequent investigations over the following weeks and months; it draws on content from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, New York Times, and other outlets, as well as Twitter posts from citizens. The study, which places Ferguson in the historical context of breaking news coverage, finds social media narratives initially impacted the shape of news coverage, but over time journalists ultimately reverted to their traditional reliance on official sources.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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103 United States Department of Justice, The Department of Justice Report, 2015, 8.

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105 US Department of Justice, 2015; Erik Eckholm and Matt Apuzzo, “Darren Wilson is Cleared of Rights Violations in Ferguson Shooting,” New York Times, March 4, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/us/darren-wilson-is-cleared-of-rights-violations-in-ferguson-shooting.html#:∼:text=Report%3A%20What%20Happened%20in%20Ferguson,shooting%20death%20of%20Michael%20Brown.

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107 Christine Byers, Stephen Deere, Chuck Raasch, Steve Giegerich and Joel Currier, “Justice Department Finds that Ferguson Officer Did Not Violate Michael Brown’s Rights,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 5, 2015, https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/justice-department-finds-that-ferguson-officer-did-not-violate-michael-browns-rights/article_06cfab32-5fb1-59dc-bf47-5711ae36cd8a.html.

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112 Zelizer, “CNN, the Gulf War, and Journalistic Practice,” 67.

113 Jane B. Singer, “The Political J-blogger: ‘Normalizing’a New Media Form to Fit Old Norms and Practices,” Journalism 6, no. 2 (2005): 173-198.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patrick Walters

Patrick Walters is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. His research interests include journalistic boundaries, media gatekeeping, media history, solutions journalism, and journalistic collaborations. His work has been published in Journalism, Journalism Studies, Digital Journalism, Journalism Practice, American Journalism, and other publications. A former reporter for the Associated Press, Walters’s journalistic work has appeared in USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, and other publications. He holds a Ph.D. in Media & Communication from Temple University, an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction from Goucher College, and a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia.

He wishes to thank Carolyn Kitch and Devon Powers for their invaluable insights and feedback on earlier versions of this project as well as the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful suggestions and critiques of the manuscript.