Suppose you read a headline in tomorrow’s news - “Police Shoot Black Man” - what is your immediate split-second reaction or conclusion **before **any facts or details have emerged in the story?
Also, would it change your view/conclusion if the headline read “Police Shoot Black Suspect” or some other potentially opinion-leading wording instead of “Man/Individual/Person?”
I’d assume that it was unjustified; otherwise, it wouldn’t make the headlines.
(Not that I think that all unpublicized shootings are justified. It’s just that any shooting that reaches the news must be particularly egregious).
I would have no immediate thoughts on whether it was justified or not, but I would think the source of the article was clearly showing their agenda.
Honestly? An expectation that the events described will turn out to have occurred in the United States.
Nope; it would reinforce the initial expectation.
I don’t know what my “immediate split-second reaction or conclusion before any facts or details have emerged in the story” would be. I imagine I’d be curious why this particular shooting made the headlines, and want to know if there was something peculiar about it, but I am certainly aware that the vast majority of police shootings are ultimately determined to be justified. Without knowing anything else about a shooting, that’s the likeliest outcome.
I’d think it was a pretty lame newspaper. With all due respect, “Police Kill Black Man” is a weak headline, dull and uninformative. It’s akin to titling the loss of the Titanic, “Ship Sinks.”
The cbsnews.com article on the Michael Brown shooting read, “Unarmed Black Mo. Teen Shot After Altercation, Police Say.”
Not trying to nitpick. Specifics matter.
I’d think the newspaper was being sensational and trying to gin up faux-controversy. Do white men generally have their race acknowledged in police-shooting headlines?
This.
The media are not innocent bystanders in the current state of racial tension. Until that changes I don’t see any cause for optimism.
mmm
The presumption on any thought would be that this particular shooting must have had some suspicious circumstances or it would not be in the news (and that the writer and editors were incompetent) and given suspicious circumstances recent events have me biased to believe that there was not sufficient justification. But I’d still try to not presume. Split second would be “bad newspaper writing.” So no answer possible in the binary.
instant reaction: unjustified. Why else would it be news
I’m with nelliebly. “Police Shoot Black Man” isn’t news, and I’d wonder what the heck the story was about.
My reaction: “Not again…”
THere’s evidence (disputable, but evidence nonetheless) that in current US society, black men are disproportionately targeted for violence by police. It’s appropriate for a headline to mention race when race is significant, as it is given that evidence.
So anytime police shoot any black man for any reason whatsoever, a headline such as “Police shoot black man” is an appropriate, informative headline? Because with that headline, no matter what the actual details are behind the shooting, only one single message is being communicated: “police shoot man for being black”.
My immediate reaction would be sloppy if not biased reporting, same as if the headline of this story had read “Black man shoots police officers.”
Is that a common headline?
Correct, IMO. Also, since there is indisputable evidence that in current US society, black men are disproportionately responsible for violent crime, it is appropriate for a headline to mention race in other circumstances, as it is, given that evidence.
“Black Man Robs Liquor Store”
“Black Man Murders Girlfriend”
“Black Man is Arrested for Dealing Cocaine”
Etc.
Regards,
Shodan
If black men are disproportionately responsible for violent crime, then surely “White Man Robs Liquor Store”, “White Man Murders Girlfriend” and “White Man is Arrested for Dealing Cocaine” would be more newsworthy. Yet this never seems to be a factor in news stories.
Their nefarious agenda of not having black men shot by the police?
My immediate reaction would be to expect to have to listen to a lot of people tell me why he *definitely *deserved to be shot, and how black people are all innately subhumans and criminals.