Framing Ferguson: Fox News and the construction of US racism

Abstract

In August 2014, police officer Darren Wilson shot unarmed Michael Brown, sparking months of protests in Ferguson, Missouri and other American cities and capturing worldwide media attention. This article presents a critical discourse analysis of Fox News Channel’s segments from August 2014 to March 2015. It systematically uncovers themes and larger discourses within five major areas: blaming black victims in the characterisation of Michael Brown and his shooting death, blaming black leaders, blaming the black community, attacking the black protesters and their movement against police brutality, and discrediting attempts to address issues of racism as the ‘politics of racial division’. Several major emergent discourses include: the criminal black (wo)man, blaming the victim, projection of racism on minorities, denial and counterattack, minimisation of racism, redistributing responsibility, personal responsibility, and deadbeat dads and unwed mothers. The author argues that Fox News in perpetuating these racist discourses helps to obstruct the addressing of racism in the criminal justice system.

Black, Blue, and Blow: The Effect of Race and Criminal History on Perceptions of Police Violence

“…Consistent with our expectations, results show a consistent effect of criminal history. As described above, research has consistently shown that media reports of police violence often use an unrelated criminal history in order to paint a citizen as a potential threat to a police officer (Hirschfield and Simon ; Mills ; Ray et al. ; Room ; Stone and Socia ).…”

“…() show conservative Twitter users commenting on the Michael Brown incident frequently posted messages that portrayed Brown as a dangerous threat, including images that literally portrayed Brown as a hulking, violent monster based on his alleged involvement in a robbery prior to his shooting. Additional research shows that Fox News portrayals of the Ferguson shooting similarly followed these trends of both relying on official reports and police testimony to frame the incident and using hyperbolic language to describe the size differential between Brown and Wilson (Mills ). These references to the unrelated criminal histories, often irrelevant to the incident, may temper public sympathy for citizens while simultaneously validating the fears reported by engaging officers by playing on the general social stigma faced by individuals with criminal backgrounds (Wakefield and Uggen ).…”

“…In many recent high profile cases of police violence, Americans who are sympathetic toward the police justify the officer actions not based explicitly on race of the citizen or even the citizen's action during the police encounter. Instead, individuals and the media often reference a citizen's prior criminal history as evidence that the individual posed a potential threat to police (Mills ; Ray et al. ).…”

“…In many recent high profile cases of police violence, Americans who are sympathetic toward the police justify the officer actions not based explicitly on race of the citizen or even the citizen's action during the police encounter. Instead, individuals and the media often reference a citizen's prior criminal history as evidence that the individual posed a potential threat to police (Mills 2017;Ray et al 2017). For example, although neither Walter Scott, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, nor Freddie Gray was engaging in a crime when confronted by police, there was nevertheless rampant media speculation about their prior criminal histories when constructing the narrative surrounding their deaths at the hands of the police, and in the ensuing debates regarding the probity of the police officer's actions (Green 2015;Monroe-Hamiton 2017).…”

“Black Is Powerful”: A Gramscian Rhetorical Analysis of Post-Racialism at the University of Missouri

“…Utilizing St. Louis as a sort of Midwestern mecca, white supremacists and neo-Nazis often collaborate and then fan out into the rural areas to implement discriminatory practices. Mills (2017) notes that for many black citizens of Missouri, especially within the St.…”