Ferguson Revisit

For my last post I’ve decided to revisit an earlier story on Ferguson. During the Thanksgiving break Ferguson or at least part of it went up in flames. This came after a grand jury didn’t indict Darren Willison. In an extra ordinary move the prosecutor decided to release the transcripts from the grand jury. This was meant to build trust with the community, yet it has brought many critics. There are two separate issues going on. 1. A move by People of Color to attack structural racism 2. While the status quo insists that it doesn’t exist. Due to the mounds of evidence and washy witness testimony it becomes harder to understand. Yet, Pundits help us.  Fox News shapes one story, while MSNBC  shapes another.


Yet, there is another discussion dominating social media. #BlackLivesMatter vs. #AllLivesMatter. Ferguson seems to have drawn a very thin line. On one side we have largely White Americans who insist that #BlackLivesMatter is inherently racist because it ignores the struggles of others. Yet, it would seem the world wide movement of #BlackLivesMatter has rejected the #AllLivesMatter because it ignores race. This is one of the major problems. One side is saying that the higher rate of state sanctioned violence against black folks is about race. Yet, the #AllLivesMatter camp is saying that everyone experiences the same state sanctioned violence. And may white victims never experience justice.

This is something that is massively outside of normative media culture. It has received so much attention largely because of the riots after the shooting and fights with the police. This has continued through the second riot earlier this week. Race is hardly ever talked about, at least as long as it has been. During the Travon Martin incident there were just a few days of protest, yet this outcry is entirely different. While folks might not want to talk about race, the conflict makes good TV.

Hidden Disabilities Still Not Discussed

Every time there is a school shooting we began and fail to finish a conversation on Hidden Disabilities. With a major focus on mental disabilities, however the conversations of guns tend to overload the conversation. Yet, this year there was actually a reason to keep the focus on Hidden Disabilities. When Robin Williams committed suicide on August 11, 2014 it was the perfect time for a national conversation on mental disability. He was a beloved man who touched the heart of millions. Even without the political battle of gun control the topic couldn’t get past the general grievance. The problem more so lies in the dominate norms of society.

 Despite the fact society has chosen to ignore Hidden Disabilities, especially mental health, it is still a very political issue. One of the biggest things facing homelessness homeless veterans is mental health and the inability to receive treatment. In 2013 the WHO published a reported detailing the seriousness of a reinvestment in mental health. “Over 10% of the global burden of disease, measured in terms of years of healthy life lost, can be attributed to these disorders” (pg. 16), but WHO also points out “In terms of the impact on the national economy, mental disorders are associated with high rates of unemployment and also under-performance while at work.” (pg. 17)

 

Despite the seriousness of the issue little time is actually devoted to the issue. This is because society doesn’t want to confront a growing problem, Acting U.S. Surgeon General,  RADM Boris D. Lushniak, M.D., M.P.H., says  mental issue like suicide are preventable.

2014 Election Results

The election results are in and finally we can start considering who actually won. While the Republicans may have won the majority in both the House and Senate many pundits wonder did anyone actually win? Neither party was really able to advertise on what they did over the last few years. There are many rumors flying around, yet what effects does that have?

Koch brothers Won

Despite the fact that neither Koch brother appeared on a ballet, several people say the Koch brothers won big. They managed to keep republicans neck and neck in funding.

Hillary Won

Again, Hillary wasn’t on the ballet but Yahoo News and Forbes says she won Election Night 2014.  How? Well, the major reason deals with the electoral map.

The GOP’s relative underperformance in swing states is a problem going forward because the 2016 landscape is a lot less favorable for Republicans than the 2014 landscape was. Sixteen of this year’s 20 contested Senate seats were held by Democrats heading into the election — and six of those Democrats were from states that Obama lost in 2012. This gave Republicans a huge advantage. The map was already red.
 But that map will be upended in 2016, when 23 of the 33 seats at stake will be held by Republicans. Six of them will be in states that Obama won in 2008 and 2012 (Illinois, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Wisconsin). Two will be in states Obama won in 2008 (Indiana, North Carolina). Two are held by senators who may be retiring (John mccain in Arizona, Chuck Grassley in Iowa). And two are held by senators who may be running for president, which means they can’t run for re-election (Marco Rubio in Florida, Rand Paul in Kentucky).

Http://news.yahoo.com/how-hillary-clinton-won-the-2014-midterms-075943434.html

Http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2014/11/05/hillary-clinton-wins-big-in-2014-midterm-elections/

The National Journal tells a completely different story.

Scott Walker was their biggest winner.  He became the most battle-tested and successful Republican candidate of the Obama era.

 He happened to win 3 times in 4 years. This seems a little difficult considering governors run for a good bit of time. Well, the reason is that Governor Walker faced a recall election and won, but due to the timing of the election he had to run again in two years. Meaning he ran in 2010, 2012, and 2014.

Chris Christie under his watch Republicans not only retained power in key battleground states (Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, Wisconsin), they also staged hostile takeovers in traditionally Democratic territory (‎Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts) and hung onto governorships in dark-blue states (Maine, Michigan, New Mexico).

Andrew Cuomo wins because coming into 2016 he will have two attributes that may suddenly be in demand among a startled Democratic base: executive experience and distance from Obama.

There is just one problem with these results. They are attempting to predict an election two years away that neither person has stated they will officially run. However, this is a very common social norm in media. Now the media has the ability to make or break any candidate. When doing so the media acts as King Makers. Garber says, the media can pick the winners and losers. “Candidates who exceed expectations in garnering votes are declared winners; candidates who fall short are losers” (Garber, pg. 311).

Immigration Reform influencing the media

While both Garber and Barrett express the view that our media isn’t very partisan; there are some issues that seem to tell a different story. Immigration reform is such an issue. It would seem most media outlets can’t discuss the issue without bring up a party. Over past year tensions have been running high around Immigration reform.

One need only look towards the bill the Senate passed, which the house has failed to take up, and the executive order from Obama granting deferment to “Dreamers”.

The an article titled A Conservative Pathway for Immigration Reform plays the issue of immigration reform as an issue for conservatives to win voters.

While, TIME posted an article stating that many felt the President hadn’t done enough. However, only democrats seem to like such actions. As many Republicans pledged to file a lawsuit against the president taking unilateral actions.

Students Speaking Out, Hong Knog

As protest in Hong Knog grows, America is still uninformed. Garber explains that selection for foreign news stories is very similar to the selection of domestic stories.  Garber points to the fact that stories still need to appeal to American audiences. “Protest, as a rule, are covered only when they are violent” (Garber, pg. 254) this points to the reason why until no so many American haven’t heard about the protest students are holding in Hong Knog. Most still are unsure of what is happening, however  CNN has covered the protest pretty well. The Chinese government has eliminated the open nomination process, in order to ensure the poor get control of the political system.

The violence of the police has changed several things in Hong Knog. Such has caused more protesters to show up instead of persuading people not to show up.  Two camps have developed the pro- democracy and pro-government.  Many have expressed concerns about the fact that pro-government side seems to be able to attack the pro- democracy side with impunity. However, Garber points why this has become news.

It is very beneficial to the Status Quo of the American government for the pro-democracy side to advance. Garber states, good frames are provided for friends, while bad frames are provided for enemies. This Garber says follows the official designations of who are or aren’t friends, while China is an ally of the US – at least I believe so – communism is still widely unpopular in American society. This has largely affected the way in which reporting about the protest in Hong Knog happens. 

Ebola Ebola Ebola

Garber has identified there are several factors when it comes to crisis report in the reporting of the Ebola “crisis” we see several of those factors. According to Garber the first few moments are about getting the information out regardless of whether it is correct or not. We’ve definitely seen this with the media’s reporting of Ebola. Garber says stage three, attempt to connect the crisis with a larger long-term prospective, happens simultaneously with the stage one and two. Many reports have blamed government officials over this the past few weeks. Most of the attention has been directed at the White House because of its inability to control the outbreak.  However, such fails to connect the inability of the Senate to confirm the health official Obama nominated towards the beginning of his second term.

During the second phase of the crisis reporting, the media attempts to correct any incorrect information. Alderson does raise the question is there really an outbreak? Major news networks have attempted to set the record straight. Both NBC and Fox network issued a journalistic commentary in which they confronted the idea of that the flu is easier to catch than Ebola, and more pole are likely to die from the flu than Ebola. 

The media as a collective

While many forms of the media feel they are outside of the norms they still exhibit habits dictated by the norms of media. Garber identifies several reasons why this is true. All media - at least new media –lacking expansive resources uses traditional media as part of their story inevitably tying themselves into an already constructed system. It’s almost impossible to take one thing and rephrase it entirely to something new; even more so in a congressional hearing David Simon discredits Citizen Journalist. 


To really observe the collective we can look to the Raven Simone incident. While talking with Oprah, Ms. Simone comments about not being African-American.

Within hours just about every alternative news media played Raven’s comments against someone who overwhelmingly identified as African-American. Bustle Media.  Creating an invisible middle where journalists can hide in their reporting. Barnett comments on the fact that social media allows people to be closer to the news source, although such creates problems when it comes to investigating. Accepting whatever that source has said is inevitably no different from the way in which governmental stories are written. What the media reported Raven said and what Raven actually said was completely different.

 Had the media investigated what Raven said, they would have realized she was talking about African-American as an ethnicity not as a race. In several interviews conducted after the story broke, Raven confirmed that she was in fact not talking about her race.

Raven Speaks Out