Tools that became news platforms. This story is about more than what is happening in one small town in the Mississippi Valley in the heat of the night that has tempers and twitter boiling over. It goes right to the core of racial conflict and social divisions in america and the way that those issues are reported. Our starting point this week is ferguson, missouri. Its no longer a 24 hour news cycle. Its a 24 second news cycle. A technological eyewitness to history. From the moment the first couple of tweets hit and once you reach that first 25,000, it quickly turns into four million or whatever, the next thing you know, those people are spreading it to their networks. You dont need a mainstream platform to access a significant chunk of the population. Its word of mouth writ large. Or tweeted large. To understand what drove the coverage of the ferguson story during its early stages, it helps to understand this according to data from the washingtonbased pew research project, 40 of African Americans use twitter compared to just 28 of whites in the same age group. This story really became a flash point for so many issues that people are seeing in their communities because of social media. You know, because there were some instant individualsuals of Michael Browns body and of folks take to go social media to sort of amplify what was happening in terms of peoples outrage. And then the outlets that tend to respond to social media picked it up. Gawker, jezabel, ebony, daily dot, Huffington Post. All of these wrote articles about it. The next thing, here comes msnbc and cnn. Good evening from ferguson, missouri. Its a story thats breaking and they can no longer ignore it. Once that unrest escalated to the point where we started to see almost a militarization of the Police Response in that area, it became an International Story and i think clearly, thats when we started to see a bigger media presence. Once mainstream News Coverage started working in tandem with social media and the coverage moved beyond the flash points, the rest of america started to get the context behind the social unrest. Fergusons population 65 black. Its police more than 90s white. They saw a mil tarized police force, one of many in the u. S. To inherent secondhand equipment from the pentagon and officers dressed like rambos treating citizens liken me from a foreign land. They saw on the streets of ferguson the kind of social inequality that black americans routinely complain of but seldom see explored in a comprehensive way in the Mainstream Media. Social media started out by driving the News Coverage and that coverage expanded to include conventional news outlets then had an effect on policy and the way that policy was communicated. These are smalltown cops that are not used to having this kind of media storm surround them and it shows in their response to journalists and the way they treated the media throughout these protests. Here in st. Louis, the normal reaction to a story like this when from the prosecuting Attorneys Office is to stonewall, not to provide answers. Its to delay, as they have delayed in this case. But what has happened in response to that has been they have been exposed for that and they are being forced into doing things that are normally not in their regular way of doing business. The rules of the game are changing because of social media. You know, we used to have to wait for Mainstream Media to validate an idea. We waited for the press conference. We waited for the big event where the leader would tell us sort of what the next step was. Because of social media, we are really in the age of participation. We have pictures that are being taken by young people that are exposing the world to the indignities that they have to suffer when they are attempting to do something as simple as protest. Its kind of like the arab spring only, i guess its the ferguson summer. Having lost control of the narrative, the police then managed to ant agonize many of the journalists. A s. W. A. T. Team raided a mcdonalds and arrested reporters from the Washington Post and the Huffington Post and the police took aim at an al jazeera live crew. We set up our live location, but then, we saw what looked like one of these Armored Police vehicles pull up. You could here the producer and myself we have press over here. They shot a rubber bullet in our direction. We yelled again. And then a less than a minute later, they shot tear gas canisters at us. So we couldnt think of anything other than that they were clearly targeting us. After the arrests of the Washington Posts wes lowry and the Huffington Post, social media data from a number of sores, including twitter shows that mentions of the town peaked after the arrests. The story that was on cable news 24 7 was those arrests. Media got down there and they were expecting freedom of the press and then they found out that ferguson pd doesnt care about freedom of the press and some have never seen so many journalists arrested, tear gassed, threatened. We saw john lemon live on air. Lets go. Walk in fronts of the camera and start trying to shove him. Whats happening is that the press are having to ask themselves if this is how the police are acting while we are here, if this is how they are treating us and we are holding cameras, this is going out live, what happens when the cameras arent here . The police maiden mes of many in the media, which had fox news taking aim at its competitors at less conservative networks for taking sides on the ferguson story. All of the agitators want the expos youre, see the bright lights, the core respondents, some of whom are making a name for themselves or openly siding with the protesters. Lauren, its become a nightly reality show for t. V. We are marching here. Protesters did welcome the mainly stream media to ferguson. They took issue with some of the coverage they saw and some that they foresaw. Three days into the story, a hash tag was born. A young black man wondering on twitter if he was ever shot and killed by a policeman, which i ammage the news media would pull from his facebook page, publish and seer into the american consciousness. It struck a chord on what africanamericans call black twitter. There is such an extraordinary hash tag. Its heartbreaking in the sense that people of color have to understand this if they kill me that they are going to try to portray me in another way. And i think that is so powerful because it forces the media to reconsider perhaps some of the choices that they are making when they tell the story about another africanamerican shot down. Make no mistake there are fergusons all around this country. America, in fact, is ferguson, and every single day, we hear stories of the things that happen to black and brown people in their communities. But more and more and more, because we are able to quickly get these images and we are able to bypass sort of the corporate filters that exist in Mainstream Media and get these stories out there, we are going to see more and more of these stories out there. Time for listening post news bites. An american journalist captured in syria and hemmed for more than 600 days as come to a gruesome end. James foley was kidnapped by the group now known as the Islamic State in a video entitled a message to america that surfaced briefly on youtube, its too graphic to broadcast. A man said to be foley is knelt next to another man who speaks in a british accent claiming to belong to the Islamic State. The victim is beheaded. His murderer said the killing was in retaliation for recent u. S. Air strikes against is forces in iraq. Foley was a veteran war photography who worked across the middle east including the global post. He was once held captive for six weeks by proceed gadaffi forces in libya. His mother issued a statement published on facebook. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the syrian people. We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American Government policy in iraq, syria or anywhere in the world. To here Julian Assange say it, the standoff could be coming to an end. This past monday, assange called reporters to london where he has been hold up for more than two years now. Saying he would be leaving the embassy soon. Assange said his departure would be because of Health Issues he did not reveal. The telegraph in the u. K. Is reporting he suffers from a heart disorder and other unspacefied ailments related to his confinement and the lack of fresh air. Julian assange sought refuge in the embassy in june of 2012 after a British Court ruled he should be extradited to sweeden to fashion Sexual Assault allegations. He has denied those allegations saying they were a play to get him to go to sweeden and on to the u. S. Where a sealed grand jury indictment is said to await him. The ecuadorian foreign minister was with him saying that he can qua dor, which has granted him asylum continues to negotiate to grant assange free package out of the u. K. But to no avail. A travel banished against an american reporter preventing him from leaving the country has turned into an expulse order. New york times correspondent Matthew Rosenberg was called in for questioning after he filed a report that said some unidentified afghan officials were threatening to take power if the political crisis following the june president ial elections was not resolved. The reporter said he was summoned to the Attorney Generals Office and asked to reveal sources which he refused to do. The authorities initially issued the travel ban as they continued to try to get at rosenbergs sources. Two days later, the reporter was given 24 hours to leave the country. This is the fourth time in 2014 that kabul has certain measures over the papers mrebling reporting. There is a tuselled underway in hong kong, a debate over how the special Administrative Region of the peoples republic of china should be governed. It pits whats being called the pandemocratic camp against those who say chinas gradual control over the city is politics and its media does not actually represent a threat. However, if one was to use hong kongs media as as measuring stick, there has been significant change. Journalists and news consumers talk of selfcensorship in the news media and to buttress their argument, they point to papers like the english language, south China Morning post. A public indication with a history that goes back 100 years, the scnps News Coverage has come under scrutiny by readers. The editor is the first journalist from Mainland China to take the editors chair. The editorial line on china is looking more and more as though it was crafted in beijing and in the newsroom, one can hear the sounds of discontents. Listening post, on the larger issue of Media Freedom in hong kong. The south China Morning post is an instittuesday in hong k g kong. Ner quality unfettered journalism with main land china. Thats until relatively recently. Its sort of a household name. Right . And when i was young, it was my daily read. In recent years, i hate to say it, but this newspaper is becoming more and more like an official beijing mouthpiece. It has been in business for more than a century. Hong kong is at a rossroads. Now, its more important than ever to create more room for dialogue and compromise. Thats how i see myself and thats how i see newspapers doing. 1993, a malaysian businessman bought the south China Morning post. Four years later, in 1997. The last british back to china. Back to the start of what beijing promised would be one country, two systems. Changes were slow in coming 1 editor per year the current editor took the job in 2012. More than two years later has lasted longer than most. The first editor to come from the mainland may explain his durability. Among his team, there are concerns about the papers independence. In journalist felt to compelled to talk to us but wanted his face obscured because he feared for his job. I think the audience in hong kong is owed an explanation of whats going on that its newspaper. I saw one person say on twitter they read the scmp in the same way they read china daily. We are not china daily yet. Within six months, he was making his presence felt. Paul mooney, a reporter who had been based in beijing and had reported critically on china for the scmp poured his contract wasnt renewed. He concluded his kind of reporting was no longer welcome at the paper. Lee wang yang openly criticized the Central Government since theents in Tiananmen Square in 1999. He died in what looked like suicide. People here in hong kong were really concerned about this. Many chinese language newspapers. On the coverage of the south China Morning post was very limited. It was relegated to the news brief section. This made many wonder if the south China Morning post editorial approach has changed with regards to human rights issues in china. The scmp went public. May when emails between alex price, a sub editor were allegedly leaked. A story, it made for interesting reading in june, 2012, in response stoan article in the wall street journal asia edition, wong said, quote, i totally reject the accusations made against me saying i act as a sensor that is totally out of line and totally biased, unqu e unquote. Go beyond the south China Morning post and point to deep kepingsz of some of hong kongs in that media owners and the editors they appoint. Charles ho, chairman of the News Corporation and richard lee, a 50 owner of the Hong Kong Economic journal are both members of the ctpcc, a prominent advisory body to the governmentbeijing. So, too, was wei when he took the job as editor. The post owners, the family, a prominent paper which publishes in chinese has growing Business Times to the mainlanland. What happens is you dont need the government to tell you what to do. Self censorship alone is destroying hong kongs press freedom. So and self sensor ship, you cant prove it. Right . Nobody is going to say, yes, i conducted self censorship because i am the pry tore of this newsroom. They wouldnt say that. But then people real journalists working on the frontline would tell you stories. This isnt a case the great power of a small number of wealthy people and ties to the government and some pan democratic politicians those more vocal will be dubbed radicals. Its pure subjective or impartiali impartiality. But at least, inc. You our reporting tries to do that, to balance both sides. The organizers of occupy central. A prochina reader said our coverage was just too bloodthirsty against beijing. We give extensive coverage to a major figure who was justice chief and now is still very close to the beijing government. We were denounced for publishing her views. There has been a drive to produce original content which may sound fine in principle but a lot of what they call original contents is actually an establishment person giving an opinion or a bit of a spin. There are many examples of this. Alan who a probe beijing lawyer frequently given free rein and the former justice secretary. After the handover, hong kong is at a crossroads and perhaps behind it. Beijing is exercising more and more control and hong kongers are concerned over what they are seeing in their city and reading in their media. The suouth China Morning post hs been an integral part of chinas identity for 110 years. The future of the paper and that of some other news outlets is intimately corrected with the future of hong kong. Whether you are a journalist in the chinese language media or the english media, the pressure is increasing on us all. A space for free reporting is diminishing an especially so in the last two or three years. But we must report important stories without self sensoring. We need to do the best work we can. I cant help but remembering what chris patton, the last governor of hong kong, saying hes not particularly worried about beijing taking away hong kongs freedoms. He is mothered worried about our freedoms being given away bit by bit by local people. More Global Village voices now on the state of journalnism hong kong. Self senseoship in hong kong is well documented but its troubling for the English Press as the post has a monopoly and traditionally done a great job in keeping the powerful intact. Staff changes, editorial interference, political pressure and corporate interests have led to washing down of criticism, particularly related to the main land. There is no sencensorship rulesd english is an official language. If we are on a path to democracy, it will be dead on rifle unless the free press which can keep leaders accountable without fear. The editorial positions of most mass media in hong kong, chinese and english languages has been shifting to probeijing side. South China Morning post is no exception. Scmp is no more the official source, unlike the past couple of years, it is now just another progovernment and beijing newspaper. Today on the stream. Americans are councilfortable talking about death and dying. Social media is normalizing the conversation and making it surprisingly helpful. Dont miss the stream. Today, 12 30 eastern on al jazeera america. Finally, bag to ferguson, missouri over the years, we have learned one of the best chr chroniclers was mark fiorna, his work was published in the San Francisco chronicle. He put them in digital animation. He goes into irony overloadload mohammad in what was supposed to be our postracial america. We will see you next time here at the listening post. This is the message residents of ferguson missouri are upset by the recent shooting of an unarmed blackman. Please exercise your First Amendment rights during the designated hours posted. If curfew has been lifted, you may exercise your right of free speech before the weaponized authorities. If you are a member of the media, all races, colors and creeds must report from the designated information center. Todays Police Response will be overseen by. And will rely on the principles of the department of post racial america Emergency Alert system would like everyone to come together and honor the memorial of brown, michael. Please stand by for periodic alerts from the department of post racial america Emergency Alert system. I am ali velshi. The news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people. And al jazeera has really tried to talk to people about their stories. We are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. We are meant to be your first choice for the news [340r7b8ings to you. I am morganrad ford in new york city. We want to bring you an update on two breaking news stories. Weve got some breaking news out of syria today where an american hostage has been freed. Journalist peter theo curtus was captured in october, 2012 according to the. He was last seen in Southern Turkey where he had plans to enter syria to teach english. He was released based upon qatari efforts. We have confirmed he was, in fact, handed over to u. N. Officials in syria today. Now lets turn to california where an earthquake measuring 6. 0 hit at 3 20 pacific time focused on the wine country north of San Francisco. Our jake ward joins us by phone. What can you tell us about the damage thus far . Morgan, damage estimates are still very preliminary, but its definitely a more than this area was ready for in and of itself. We are passed by a convoy from alameda county. Reports have 87 injuries. Mostly minor injuries that you would expect from an earthquake like this fly, flying glass and falling objects can hurt anybody. But the latest reports have two adults and a child seriously injured supposedly in a falling chimney incident. So injuries run doubtedly going to climb as people make their way to emergency medical services. Jake, just briefly from a scientific standpoint, what does it mean its happening on earth when Something Like this happens . Well, this really just speaks to sort of the liquid quality of the solid ground that we stand upon. The earth is held in constant tension a and when two plates slip the way they do in an earthquake, these p waves, these strong waves, move through the earth as through liquid. This was a strong side to side motion. Thats referred to as a love wave. Its named for the discoverer, and that is what we have all felt here. A love wave. All right, jake ward joining us on the phone. Thanks so much for being with us. I am morgan radford. I will be back with the latest on the earthquake. Now, stay tuned to al jazeera. After nearly three years in captivity in syria, an american journalist is freed. Hello. Welcome to al jazeera. I am steven cole in doha. Chaos and confusion if libya as rebel militia sees control. Israel says the military prorussian separatists parade prisoners of war through the streets of donetsk in a show
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.