The Sociological Eye in the News: Covering West Baltimore in the Aftermath of the Death of Freddie Gray

• In Event: Journalism and Sociology: Comparative Epistemologies, Boundaries, and Ways of Knowing the World

Abstract

Critics argue that journalism presents incomplete, decontextualized and distorted news that fail to help the public gain a deeper understanding of the causes and solutions to inner-city problems disproportionately affecting African-Americans. One could argue that what is missing is a perspective inspired by the sociological imagination that, as C. Wright Mills memorably defined it, links character and social structure.


This paper discusses this argument in the context of news coverage of the events following the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody in Baltimore in April 2015. An analysis of local and national media show that mainstream journalism was inclined to adopt a sociological perspective under specific circumstances and for a brief period of time. “Sociological” stories provided insights into the social fabric and the realities of the neighborhood at the center of news events. Yet such stories did not interpret social inequalities and various problems affecting local residents in terms of structural racism. Focused on the description of specific problems, straight reporting failed to offer a nuanced historical understanding of policies that came to shape patterns of social and racial inequality in West and East Baltimore. Although journalism occasionally provides sociological glimpses into social problems, it is “sociology under deadline” at best.

Author

• Silvio R. Waisbord, George Washington U