News media’s patchwork storytelling

Isaac Bruce
5 min readOct 16, 2020

Dear news media, where is the racial justice in creating a racial narrative? In today’s news media, any major headline involving a Black person is bound to be followed by a body bag they’ve been laid in.

Breonna Taylor (LEFT), Ahmaud Abery (MIDDLE) and George Floyd (RIGHT) — not original photo collage.

In this year alone, news media has covered the aftermaths following the shootings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Abery and George Floyd. Each of which not only stoked racial tension, but shattered it.

Yet, in the eight years following Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012, news media has been swamped by the announcement of another Black person dead, and typically ONLY Black people. Time, time and time again. The impact of these deaths cannot be undermined, after all, Blacks are disproportionately affected by police abuse (Figure 1).

“People shot to death in the U.S. from 2017–2020.” Blacks represent around 18% of the U.S. population and trail behind Whites and Hispanics, yet are second in groups impacted by fatal police abuse. Chart from STATISTA.

Yet with media only reporting on police abuse involving Black people, it sets a narrative. A racially charged narrative that news media continues to hammer through. News media has always had difficulty adapting past repeating verbiage ad nauseum.

The question must be raised: Is news media doing an injustice to society as a whole and worsening race relations? In order to find this answer, I intend to reverse the notion of media portraying the shootings of Blacks as being strictly informal and therefore a service to audiences. It is neither good coverage, nor is it bad coverage, but what is covered doesn’t necessarily hold the whole hog of truth. I turn to Canoga Park to find my answers.

Total population in Canoga Park, circa 2018 — CensusReporter

Canoga Park is a fairly diverse community and though the clear winner in terms of sheer number are Whites, discrepancy exist in regards to who is actually White and who can’t help but be added to that number as there exists no other option. Regardless, the melting pot aspect of Canoga Park makes it easy to have open conversations regarding race and ultimately dissect how people view race from watching media.

Large swath of the Canoga Park area

Deconstruction of traditional media and its inability to remain neutral and not push an agenda will also be easy as race in general is at the forefront of American’s minds currently.

It is important to know when a narrative is being developed by what should be reliable sources. A racially charged narrative suggesting that ONLY Black people are victims is a disservice. It creates a narrow scenario where the audience does not think for themselves and immediately believes what they see and hear.

Canoga Park’s diversity lends it well to this study as I can gleam a lot of insight from many walks of life. What is presented on media isn’t a reflection of reality.

For this proposal and the boon of Canoga Park’s diverse community, my questions are shaped to be neutral and easily digestible for a multi-ethnic community:

How do you feel news media is portraying race? To ease into the conversation, this is the bread and butter starter for the next:

Do you believe news media is doing you a justice by showcasing Black people being shot?

Is this information instead doing you an injustice? Does it reflect reality or not? The applicable answer to this would be the disproportionate deaths of Black people at the hands of police. For this, a counter-

Has news media done a lazy job of explaining the disproportionate killings of Black people?

Beyond stating the injustice of media’s narrative agenda in regards to race, I also intend to consider if the opposite is true and weigh that opinion against the former. By introducing the counter point, I can easily fact check to analyze what is correct and incorrect in my study.

To best document the deconstruction of people’s perception of race relations presented by news media, I will present opinions through an article using these multimedia elements: Audio playback, photos and charts.

I was particularly enthralled by some of the narratives and approaches used by Walter Thompson-Hernandez and his California Love podcast. I believe the integration of a reporting style like this in an article is the best way to capture hard-hitting questions of race.

“California Love” podcast by Walter Thompson-Hernandez — Photo courtesy of Apple podcasts, WTH.

My inquiry is best suited as a long-form narrative and an inclusion of interviewee’s personal accounts would allow the audience to listen to the voice of the people in my community than only read about what those people have said. ENGAGEMENT, that is key.

“Under our skin” — The Seattle Times

To add, the approach by The Seattle Times’ “Under our Skin” project is closest to how I would put together the narrative I hope to convey. Personal anecdotes, neatly arranged commentary and spicy storytelling are the ingredients for a successful article dealing with race.

Middle body from “Under our Skin” showing comments of participants- The Seattle Times

Based on responses I’ve received from my initial round of interviews, the long-form narrative with multi-media supplements is my best option for presenting a coherent narrative on the subject of news media and race portrayal. Podcasts are the easily digestible supplement to my words as text.

One of a handful of responses using “Neighbor” app.

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