#BlackTwitter, The New CNN

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/blacktwitter-new-cnn



#BlackTwitter has always been that special place in the Twitterverse where African Americans have congregated to discuss issues germane to the black experience, but recent events in Ferguson, Mo., have solidified it as something more: a vital 24-hour news source.

After unarmed 18-year-olf Michael Brown was shot dead by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, national media began to parachute in to the St. Louis suburb. Right behind them (or some would argue ahead of them), black bloggers and activists were online, critiquing the stories and tweets of reporters on the ground for cultural accuracy. In any story involving a black young person killed by a white one, the subject of race tends to lead the narrative.

Many critics believed from the onset that media coverage of the unrest--esepcially the looting that followed--unfairly described the residents' grievances. Nikole Hannah-Jones at ESSENCE wrote that initial coverage of the rioting overshawdowed the fact that a teenager's life was taken.

"As a journalist, I get it," she wrote. "The images of the rioting were gripping. But coverage of the riots should not overshadow the cause of the riots. The real story has taken a backseat to the sensational. A young Black man lost his life in a confrontation with police under very controversial circumstances. Ferguson is policed by a nearly all-White police force. This context has been missing in too many of these stories. And in the eyes of many people commenting on social media, this type of reporting has rendered the destruction of property more important than the destruction of Black life."

[Enthusiast]

1. Kicked and recommended!

Way to go, xchrom!

[xchrom]

2. ...