Is The Media Covering Protests Too Much?

 Griffin Shaivitz

gs813919@ohio.edu

Courtesy of WBUR

It has almost been an entire decade since the start of the Black Lives Matter movement; from July of 2013 with the Zimmerman trial to the George Floyd protests that continue to this day, we are still talking about the Black Lives Matter movement. However, are we overdoing it in our coverage? Are we sensationalizing this movement in the media or just reporting it?

According to two different Pew Research studies, the data shows something exciting. For the first one and the graph below, the data is very mixed. The news loves to talk about negative actions; that is why people consider "too much coverage" of the acts of violence that came from the death of George Floyd. But on the other hand, the vast majority of people said that there wasn't enough coverage of the nonviolent protests that were going on.

Courtesy of Pew Research Center

That brings up the idea of what the media is trying to spread. What issues should we cover and not cover during this period? What should we stay away from? These questions are something we will never solve because we as a society pay way more attention to the bad things that happen rather than the good. That is because we are biased regarding what we consume, and as Kendra Pierre-Louis says, "the media is biased to the status quo." That can be seen in the second Pew Research study, where people feel that there are more important issues to discuss but are being overshadowed by news of police and protests.

Courtesy of Pew Research Center

In the end, the media will always be biased. However, as journalists, we need to cover all aspects of the story, good or bad, and not dramatize it. Everyone has biases, and everyone likes to read things that are negative more than positive, we can't change human nature, but we shouldn't exploit it.