From Breonna Taylor to George Floyd: Media Frames and the Threat of Policing

• In Event: Policing, Politics, and Participation

Abstract

During the global pandemic, state-based violence against Black Americans has received record amounts of news coverage. But, how does that news coverage contribute to gendered notions of police violence? Moreover, how do media framing and coverage choices reflect the concerns of Americans in the aggregate? In this manuscript, I analyze media coverage of the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in March and May 2020, respectively. Using both relational and conceptual content analysis of articles and tweets, I investigate how news coverage at Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times disproportionately covered George Floyd’s killing with respect to Breonna Taylor’s. I also use Google Search Trends to compare these media choices to the search habits of American people. These data suggest that mass media is more likely to cover police violence against Black men than violence against Black women. Overall, this manuscript illustrates how media frames and coverage choices present a gendered picture of police violence against Black Americans that does not fully resemble the experiences of many Black Americans themselves.

Author

• Jenn M. Jackson, Syracuse University