Saturday, November 29, 2014

Conclusion to my San Francisco Thanksgiving trip-- a Riot in Union Square 11/29/14

On the last night of my time in San Francisco this Thanksgiving break, I witnessed one of the many riots happening in response to Ferguson that occurred across the country.  Seeing as I was there, I thought I would take a look at the descriptions of the event through the eyes of the media.

Granted, I did leave just before the protesters started to get riot-y, so I cannot vouch for how the environment got after the initial protests.  When I left though, there were A LOT of police patrolling the streets and I did see people in the middle of Union Square holding signs for Ferguson.  I did not however see any commotion from the protestors as I was leaving.  


The article's title itself is already biased and negate toward the protesters.  It reads, "Black Friday Protest Over Ferguson Decision Turns Ugly, Clashes In Union Square, Mission District."  By saying, "turns ugly," the reader of this article pictures the protestors (mainly peaceful) all savagely tearing through Union Square.  By having this pretense set in the title, the reader can no longer view the protests for what they are supposed to be viewed for and must instead see them as completely negative and violent.  

The article also states that bricks were "hurled" along with listing more violent acts.  Now, I am not saying that I condone these acts.  I certainly do not appreciate the protests turning violent and causing harm to the businesses surrounding them.  But I do believe that because the article is only describing the violent acts, the audience will not understand the reasons behind the protests in the first place.  If the article is going to bash the protestors, the article must also illustrate to the readers why the protestors are protesting in the first place and should not generalize and label all of the protesters in the title of the article.  




3 comments:

  1. I agree with your opinions about the damage done to the local businesses. While the Ferguson case is a very big, controversial topic, the actions of one man shouldn't have an affect on the business lives of others.

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  3. Very true, this article, along with many others, makes a strong effort to evoke a sense of fear and worry within the readers because it primarily focuses on the bad things that some of the protestors are up to. I disagree, however, with your claim that the article does not address the purpose behind the protests. The article stated about three to four times that the protests were taking place because the citizens were upset with the grand jurys decision to not indict Darren Wilson. But of other matters, I thought it was odd/ random that the article felt the need to briefly highlight the "Great Tree Lighting." It was just irrelevant and didn't need to be brought up in their article. But to end on a happier note, I too agree with you and Derek that the "protestors" who ARE using this as an excuse to simply trash up stores, well, it is quite unnecessary and should not be happening by any means. These are stores that in no way contribute to the dissatisfaction of the San Franciscans, so they should not be robbed or vandalized. And it is also the workers who must deal with all the chaos, despite the fact that they are just merely trying to earn their paycheck.

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