Keywords
black lives matter, public interest, media, social movements
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Black Lives Matter is a social movement, created and maintained on social media networks; its formation was spurred in part by the number of Black men and women who have been killed by police officers in the United States. This research focuses on the relationship between police-caused deaths of Black men and women and media coverage of and public interest in Black Lives Matter. The primary goal of the research was to determine whether traditional news coverage of Black Lives Matter was linked to the killings of Black citizens by police. We found that Black citizen deaths did not result in increased mentions of Black Lives Matter in either newspaper articles or Google searches. We did, however, find that when police officers were killed at a protest, mentions of Black Lives Matter in both the news and Google queries increased at a substantial rate, as did searches for “Blue Lives Matter.” The implications for police use of force, Black Lives Matter, and traditional news media are discussed.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.21428/b6e95092.a155a6b5
Recommended Citation
Bordonaro, Francesca and Willits, Dale
(2018)
"#Black Lives Matter? Analyzing the Effects of Police-Caused Black Deaths on Media Coverage and Public Interest in the Movement,"
Journal of Criminal Justice and Law: Vol. 2:
Iss.
2, Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21428/b6e95092.a155a6b5
Available at:
https://research.library.kutztown.edu/jcjl/vol2/iss2/2