Introduction
When it comes to cases such as Trayvon Martin’s, common media tends to use representations built off stereotypes, and images and stories that they know will entertain the reader. Rather than informing them of the case and the facts behind it, they would much rather fight with other media companies for the most popular story or the most clicks. This creates an unfair situation for the victim’s involved, most of who can’t even help themselves since they had been killed. In this article, we are going to discuss the case of Trayvon Martin and other cases like his such as Eric Garner and Michael Brown and show how common media created a negative view of them based solely off negative images of them and popular stereotypes that infect society.
Trayvon Martin
On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Benjamin Martin, a 17-year-old from Miami
Gardens, Florida, was walking down the street of a gated community when he was approached by a man by the name of George Michael Zimmerman, who was a neighborhood watch for the community. Zimmerman called 911 on Martin, reporting him as a suspicious person, and was told not to get out of his SUV or approach Martin. He ignored the advice and approached Trayvon Martin. Many people in homes around the area ended up calling the cops when they heard a man screaming, and shortly after, gunshots. The night Trayvon Martin died started when, according to a CNN article from 2012, “Trayvon Martin walked into a 7-Eleven in Sanford, Florida, grabbing a bag of Skittles and a can of Arizona iced tea.” All of this was caught on surveillance cameras in the 7-Eleven and they are the last images of him alive. Trayvon Martin didn’t live in Sanford, Florida, and was only there staying with his father’s fiancé because he was suspended from Dr. Michael M. Krop High School in Miami, where he was from, because drug residue was found in his backpack. On his way home from 7-Eleven, he called his girlfriend, who was on the phone with him until Martin had his encounter with Zimmerman. Many people called 911 during the encounter, with one person telling police, “she heard a commotion, which sounded like arguing,” and another saying they heard “loud talking,” (CNN 2012). One call stood out from all the rest though. In this call, a “police sergeant counted one man yelling ‘help!’ or ‘help me!’ 14 times in the span of 38 seconds,” according to the same CNN article. The FBI said the voice could not be distinguished due to the “extreme emotional state of whomever was yelling, a lack of words from which to compare, overlapping voices and insufficient voice quality on the recording,” (CNN 2012). The gunshot was clearly heard though, and was said to come from Zimmerman’s 9mm semiautomatic hand gun. When police arrived at the scene, they found Trayvon Martin face down in the grass. Efforts were made to try to save him, “A sergeant checked and couldn’t find a pulse. For the next six minutes, he and another police officer teamed up to conduct CPR on the teen. A plastic bag, brought by a neighbor, was used to seal his chest wound. Firefighters and EMS from the Sanford Fire Department arrived at 7:27 p.m., to continue efforts to try to save him,” (CNN 2012). Those efforts failed, and Trayvon Martin was pronounced dead at 7:30 pm.
The Use of Media in the Trayvon Martin Case
In the Trayvon Martin case, many different tactics were used to get the media to report a way and prove a certain side of the story. Sanford Police Department’s homicide detective Christopher Serino reports that he thought Zimmerman’s head injuries were ‘marginally consistent with a life-threatening episode, as described by him, during which neither a deadly weapon nor deadly force were deployed by Trayvon Martin,” according to a CNN article from 2013. When the pictures of Zimmerman’s head injuries were revealed (pictured below), people started to believe that Trayvon Martin was the attacker in the situation because of how severe the injuries were. In this situation, the media was used to convict Trayvon Martin of the crime because there was proof that he had done it. The injuries were not as bad as they were turned out to be though, considering Zimmerman refused hospitalization on the night of the interaction.
During the case, it was announced that the Sanford police chief, Bill Lee, would be resigning because of the criticism he faced from the Trayvon Martin case. This was because Bill Lee failed to take George Zimmerman into custody and failed to subject him to drug and alcohol tests after the shooting. This tactic was used to take some of the heat off the police department and get the people who were supporting the Trayvon Martin case in the area to trust them a little more again. It can also be theorized that this resignation was used to distract media from Zimmerman being released from jail on a $150,000 bond, since the news of the resignation came hours after this event.
On March 23, 2012, “President Barack Obama spoke out publicly for the first time on the growing controversy over the shooting of Trayvon Martin, saying that the incident requires national “soul-searching,” (CNN 2013). Many people look up to President Obama and admire him, so when he came out publicly about his view on the case, many media outlets wrote stories on it and many people watched the speech. After hearing his view, it is likely that more people became interested in the case and took the side of Trayvon Martin rather than George Zimmerman, considering that Obama took the side of Trayvon.
On March 26, 2012, “Rallies take place in cities across the country, including Sanford, Florida, where the City Commission holds a town hall meeting on the incident and its aftermath. Martin’s parents speak at the meeting.” These rallies brought national attention to the Trayvon Martin case because they were highly televised and reported on. After seeing the rallies on TV, viewers were most likely more inclined to take the side of Trayvon Martin if this was their first-time hearing about the case. This is especially true after hearing the emotional stories of Martin’s parents at the rallies, because the viewer is more likely to sympathize with them and help them get justice for their son. In this situation, media was used to help Trayvon Martin receive justice.
On March 28, 2012, “Zimmerman’s father appears on television and says that Martin threatened to kill his son and then beat him so badly Zimmerman was forced to shoot.” Zimmerman’s brother also claimed self-defense on March 29, 2012, when he “appears on CNN and says medical records will prove that his brother was attacked, and his nose was broken by Martin before he fatally shot the teen,” (CNN 2013). After seeing Trayvon Martin’s parents speak publicly about the case, Zimmerman’s family decided to do the same because of the media coverage it received. Viewers watched as media reported on these two interviews, because after seeing Trayvon Martin’s parents’ stories, they were curious what George Zimmerman’s family had to say. Based on how they perceived these interviews, this was the time when most viewers picked a side.
On April 20, 2012, “Zimmerman’s bond hearing is held. Judge Lester sets Zimmerman’s bond at $150,000. During the hearing, Zimmerman apologizes to the family of Martin for the loss of their son,” (CNN 2013). Zimmerman publicly saying sorry to Martin’s parents could have been perceived positively by the public, so he took the chance to get people to sympathize with him.
Based on the evidence provided, it is evident that media does play a significant role in the public perception of a case. The people involved with a case can do certain things that they know media will report on to help shape their case. For example, Barack Obama’s speech about Trayvon Martin and Martin’s parents speaking about their son may have made them take the side of Trayvon Martin in the case, while the reporting of Zimmerman’s injuries and his father and brother’s testimonies will have made people take the side of Zimmerman. Despite the real-life events that happen, media still find a way to create their own stories.
Representation
A big influence in how society shapes their attitudes on any case is the media. When news of a case first comes out, viewers are going to base their view on what their news media outlet is trying to create of the case. Surette talks about how media portrays a crime, saying, “Criminals are criminals because of the people they associate with, or share a neighborhood or culture with,” (Surette 2015). This is particularly true in the Trayvon Martin case, where photos were used of him that made people view him a certain way. For example, pictures were released of him with gold teeth, and flipping off the camera, and photos were found on his phone that showed him holding a gun and text messages from his phone were also revealed. The impact of these photos is discussed by Caldwell & Caldwell, “Images in the media shape popular culture and permeate the collective conscious such that political opinions and decisions are silently yet profoundly impacted by these images” (Caldwell & Caldwell, 61, 2011). These photos were used in many articles and went viral, which resulted in many people changing their opinion on Trayvon Martin, even though the pictures did not relate to the case. An article from USA Today states these same concerns, “In dozens of interviews with family members and acquaintances, and from details available in court documents and school records, Trayvon Martin is revealed as a standout athlete with a ravenous appetite. Adored by family. Quiet and funny. And yet there is evidence of drug use, school suspensions and an interest in mixed martial arts. Tattoos and gold teeth. Attributes used to paint Trayvon as a marauding thug or defended as simply a “typical” young man.” Articles about the case were calling Trayvon Martin a “thug” or a “troublemaker” and Trayvon couldn’t be there to defend himself, and instead people relied on pictures that he had taken to reveal the truth. Jewkes discusses this, saying, “Put simply, if the media expect something to happen it will happen, and journalists will usually have decided on the angle they are going to report a story from before they even arrive at the scene,” (Jewkes 2004). There were many good pictures of him, but news articles decided to use the pictures described and shown below to create a ripple in the case and in their audience’s attention to the case. An article from The Nation also reflects on this, “And so, by the end of the trial, the 200-pound Zimmerman, despite martial arts training and a history of assaulting others, was transformed into a “soft,” retiring marshmallow of a weakling. The 158-pound Martin had been reimagined as an immense, athletically endowed, drug-addled ‘thug.” Despite Zimmerman being the stronger individual in the situation, Trayvon was seen as the one that could cause the real harm, whether that was because of how viewers saw him based on race or the photos that were shown of him. Trayvon Martin’s case is not the only one that has fallen victim to false media portrayal.
Related Cases
Michael Brown:
In Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th, 2014, an 18-year-old boy was fatally shot by a 28-year-old police officer. It is said that Michael Brown got into an altercation with the officer (Wilson), and the officer said that Brown went into his car and made an attempt on his sidearm. Michael Brown was not alone on this day, his friend stated that it was Wilson who initiated the confrontation when he tried to pull Brown through his window by the neck, and when Brown tried to pull away, Wilson started firing at him. Both Wilson and Johnson state that Brown and Johnson fled, with Wilson pursuing Brown shortly after the two fled the scene. The officer stated that while the pursuit was going on, Brown had stopped, turned around and started to charge him. Johnson stated that this claim was false, and that Brown turned around and raised his hands, turned around, and then Wilson shot him in the back.
When the case went to court, the grand jury decided not to indict the officer for his “crime”. On March 4th, 2015 “the U.S. Department of Justice reported the conclusion of its own investigation and cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting”. The Department of Justice found that the forensic evidence, supported the officer’s story and those who testified in favor of the officer were also credible sources. The Department found that those who testified against the officer were not credible. After the officer was let go freely, the entire city turned into flames. The people of Ferguson were built into such a rage that they went around the city rioting and were pushing for justice.
This case relates to ours because, Michael Brown was another African American who was shot and killed by a police officer, and the victim was treated very poorly when the case went to court. Like with Trayvon Martin, the media used pictures that showed a side of Michael Brown that would make the viewers think of him differently. From an article on Aljazeera, “Though some initial media reports showed Brown smiling at his high school graduation in cap and gown, most chose a photo of a stoic-looking Brown wearing a red jersey and throwing what some could interpret as a gang sign, which friends said was simply a peace sign.” Because of this people on social media started tweeting under #iftheygunnedmedown, where people posted a picture of one of their achievements, such as graduating high school or the naval academy, and the other picture being the picture the media would use, which was a picture of them smoking or flipping off the camera. Even though the people had achieved these successes, media would focus on the negatives of the person to create a headliner that viewers would click on and that would cause debate. These negative images of black victims are successful too because of other media we consume, as Yousman explains, “Images that highlight criminal and violent black men stand out because there is a more restricted range of images of black males on television in general,” (Yousman 2009). Covington also discusses how film has shaped these images of black males, “Because the black teenagers depicted in these ghetto action films seem to cry out for aggressive police tactics, they justify police aggression towards blacks. Moreover, many of these images of lawless, out-of-control black youth appear in films marketed to white audiences, seemingly for just that purpose,” (Covington 1995). Despite media portrayal, a good portion of the country felt that Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin should have gotten justice, and that Wilson and Zimmerman should have been thrown in jail. The Michael Brown case is one that formed a realization that the media was using pictures and descriptions of victims that we would find unfavorable.
Eric Garner:
On Thursday, July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was arrested for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes. Cellphone video of the confrontation went viral, where officer Daniel Pantaleo placed him in a chokehold which was a tactic prohibited by NYPD policy. Because of this chokehold, Garner went into cardiac arrest. In the video, you can hear Garner saying, “I can’t breathe,” repeatedly, but the officer continued to place him into a tighter chokehold. When EMS workers arrived to assist Garner, they did not even perform CPR on him, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Immediately, representatives started blaming Garner for his own death rather than a problem with their city’s police department. From an article on BBC, “You had a 350lb (158.8kg) person who was resisting arrest. The police were trying to bring him down as quickly as possible,” New York Representative Peter King told the press. “If he had not had asthma and a heart condition and was so obese, almost definitely he would not have died.” The police were using a tactic that was prohibited within the department because it would most likely cause problems within the person they were trying to take down, yet Garner is blamed for the characteristics of himself that Peter King believed were responsible for his death. A writer of a Vice article also feels strongly about the deaths of these many black men, saying, “the actual death of Eric Garner is a blatant reminder that in the eyes of the law, black lives are worth a lot less in this country than whites and that black men are still seen as needing to be controlled and killed if necessary — just as they were in antebellum South.” Even though the killings of these three men, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner weren’t necessary, the officers who did the killings felt it was, and change needs to be made to those standards that they carry. It all starts with the media. Dear common media, stop changing the pictures of these men for the negative. Create a story based on the facts, not based on a side of the victim’s personal life that you know will make your audience look at them differently. Create a story based on truth.
Black Lives Matter Movement
Black Lives Matter is a movement that campaigns against violence and systematic racism towards black people. The three cases described, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, kept alive the national conversation of subjects that the Black Lives Matter group fought against, which was the injustice that Black Americans were facing from police officers that were killing them. The movement immediately received backlash, with people coming up with other movements such as “All Lives Matter,” and “Blue Lives Matter.” Some officials also decided to speak their opinion on the movement. Rudy Giuliani said that, “It’s inherently racist because, number one, it divides us. … All lives matter: White lives, black lives, all lives…number two: Black Lives Matter never protests when every 14 hours somebody is killed in Chicago, probably 70–80% of the time (by) a black person. Where are they then? Where are they when a young black child is killed,” according to a CNN article from 2016. Media backlash also followed when the Black Live Matter movement was blamed for the ambush murders of three police officers in New York, Baton Rouge, and Dallas. An article from The Conversation from 2017 discusses this, saying, “These atrocities received blanket media coverage and became a major theme of the 2016 Republican National Convention. Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke opened his speech by declaring that “blue lives matter”, blaming Black Lives Matter for “the collapse of social order.” The Black Lives Matter movement continued to be blamed for other murders, because people believed that the movement instilled a fear in society that caused them to act in creating violence. Some even claimed that police officers were more prone to make tragic mistakes because of Black Lives Matter.
What most don’t notice is that the Black Lives Matter movement does not just draw attention to police violence, but it also draws attention in how the state values human life. When the movement came out, “33 Blue Lives Matter bills had been introduced in 14 states in 2014, following 15 such bills in 2016,” (The Conversation 2017). These bills suggest that members of racial minorities are somehow more “protected” than police officers, who they perceive to be the real victims. People have never questioned the thought that police lives matter, but the thought is always questioned when it comes to the lives of minorities such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner. The three cases strengthened the case of the Black Live Matter movement, because all three of the victims received injustice, and the court and media were set out to turn them into the murderers in the situation.
On a more positive note, The Black Lives Matter movement and media coverage of it has helped to spread awareness of these types of cases. According to an article from ACLU, “The BLM movement’s unrelenting work on the issue of police corruption, helped incite the release of four unprecedented U.S. Department of Justice reports that confirm the widespread presence of police corruption in Baltimore, Chicago, Ferguson, and Cleveland.” Thanks to the use of social media from the movement, people of society were able to create their own stories and thoughts rather than having media news outlets come up with thoughts for them. This sharing of ideas was important because it helped people connect on what they felt strongly for, and a wider attention was brought to it because posts about the movement had gone viral on social media. Without the use of social media, Black Lives Matter may not have made as big of an impact as they had and are still making.
Interview Information
Writer’s Memo
With this article, we wanted to expose how media can depict black men and we wanted to show how it affected the cases of people like Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown. Most viewers tend to base their opinion on a case solely on what the media shows them and the images they use. This can be unfair, because most images that the media uses are negative, and these photos can be used to make the victim the criminal. Frequently, news media make articles to gain clicks rather than inform the reader, so they are searching to entertain rather than inform at times. This is unfair to the people involved a case because how the media portrays them is what most people are going to believe. By exposing these tactics, we hope that people will become more aware of their habits and try to dive deeper into cases and look at the facts more rather than just media images and news stories. Our article differs from the common media representations of our topic because we worked to show the truth of the people behind the cases, whereas common media worked to create an image of the victims that would make the reader more engaged and entertained by the article. Common media knows their power in situations like this and continues to use it to their advantage to help sway cases the way they feel they need to go. With our article, we wanted to give readers the real information and let them decide for themselves whose side they want to take and why they want to take it. Our article also allows for bigger conversation among society as well. Since readers will be allowed to form their own opinions about the case, readers will have more to discuss among each other, compared to reaching a consensus based on what common media want you to think. This is important because it allows for a better and more healthy conversation, rather than one that is mostly negative that is fed off negative common media representations.
Works Cited
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“Trayvon Martin Shooting Fast Facts.” CNN, Cable News Network, 28 Feb. 2019, www.cnn.com/2013/06/05/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-fast-facts/index.html.
Williams, Patricia J. “The Monsterization of Trayvon Martin.” The Nation, 29 June 2015, www.thenation.com/article/monsterization-trayvon-martin/.
Alcindor, Yamiche. “Trayvon Martin: Typical Teen or Troublemaker?” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 12 Dec. 2012, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/11/trayvon-martin-profile/1761373/.
“Ferguson Reports Raise Questions on Media Criminalization of Blacks.” Al Jazeera America, america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/14/ferguson-media-iftheygunnedmedown.html.
“Pictures of Trayvon Martin Holding a Gun, Giving the Finger, Now Circulating the Web.” Your Black World, 23 May 2013, yourblackworld.net/2013/05/23/pictures-of-trayvon-martin-holding-a-gun-giving-the-finger-now-circulating-the-web/.
“Viewpoint: Why Eric Garner Was Blamed for Dying.” BBC News, BBC, 8 Dec. 2014, www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30340632.
Cooper, Wilbert L. “Eric Garner and the Plague of Police Brutality Against Black Men.” Vice, VICE, 18 July 2014, www.vice.com/en_us/article/8gdvdz/eric-garner-and-the-plague-of-police-brutality-against-black-men.
NBC. “Timeline: Eric Garner Death.” NBC New York, NBC New York, 5 Dec. 2014, www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Timeline-Eric-Garner-Chokehold-Death-Arrest-NYPD-Grand-Jury-No-Indictment-284657081.html.
Smith, David. “The Backlash against Black Lives Matter Is Just More Evidence of Injustice.” The Conversation, 6 Dec. 2018, theconversation.com/the-backlash-against-black-lives-matter-is-just-more-evidence-of-injustice-85587.
Lim, Naomi. “Rudy Giuliani: Black Lives Matter ‘Inherently Racist’.” CNN, Cable News Network, 11 July 2016, edition.cnn.com/2016/07/11/politics/rudy-giuliani-black-lives-matter-inherently-racist/index.html.
“How Black Lives Matter Changed the Way Americans Fight for Freedom.” American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/how-black-lives-matter-changed-way-americans-fight.
McVeigh, Karen. “Trayvon Martin Death: Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee to Quit.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Apr. 2012, www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/23/trayvon-martin-sanford-bill-lee.
Class Readings
Surette, R. (2015). Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Images, Realities, and Policies. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Jewkes, Y. (2004). Media & Crime. London: SAGE.
Caldwell, B., & Caldwell, E. C. (n.d.). “Superpredators’ and ‘Animals’ — Images and California’s ‘Get Tough on Crime’ Initiatives.” Journal of the Institute of Justice & International Studies.
Yousman, Bill. Prime Time Prisons on U.S. TV: Representation of Incarceration. Peter Lang, 2009.
Covington, Jeanette. “Racial Classification in Criminology: The Reproduction of Racialized Crime.” Sociological Forum, 1995.
