Bree, response 4/4

These chapters got me thinking about some contemporary movements that we've seen both flourish and fail in the media. I first thought of the "Occupy" movement and how people participating in it that were upset with our current economic status were quickly painted as criminals trying to upset the American dream. The news has a way of twisting the truth, and this representation is reminiscent of how the South portrayed activists in the Civil Rights Movement. But what about the movements that the news actually presents as "good". I found this on globalresearch.org when I started looking around the internet....

"One US group that seem to have their protest coverage (positively) amplified in the mass media is the Promise Keepers, “an evangelical men’s organization with an anti-feminist and anti-gay theology”. Dane Claussen analysed their coverage in US newspapers – from 1991 (their founding year) through to April 1996 – and concluded that it was “overwhelmingly positive”. [9] In fact, one of their protests in Washington DC received “more than three times the coverage” the television networks devoted to a women’s march held the day before, which was more than double its size."

This is interesting to me, though it was a social group in the 1990s, it still resembles the coverage we see today. Consider all of the protestors and groups in support of same-sex marriage, depending on what news station you tune into, it seems as though you're given stories on two different countries, one country that mostly supports it, and one that mostly opposes it. Say you regularly watch a news station with a conservative agenda, I find it unlikely that you'd see many gay rights protests covered, and if you did, they'd likely be painted as degenerates crushing "American ideals". But on the other side of the coin, were you to watch Anderson Cooper's news program, the views would likely be more than sympathetic to the cause of gay rights. 

It's really quite terrifying that news varies wherever you go. But unfortunately, the conventional wisdom still remains that the media is just there reporting the facts, when they are mroe than skewed form every which way.