#HandsUpDontShoot: Studying Coverage of Ferguson as a ‘Critical Incident’ from Journalism’s Recent Past

Abstract

For seventy years, gatekeeping theory has described how news sources, news institutions, and audiences impact the way information is distributed and consumed through mass media. But when a Black teenager, Michael Brown, was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, citizen accounts of him having his “hands up” quickly spread on social media, forcing journalists to acknowledge both the circumstances of the shooting and the role of social media in shaping the narrative. This historical study of the “recent past” considers how Brown’s shooting death served as a “critical incident” that forced journalists to reevaluate long-held practices in the face of citizen journalism on social media. Using textual analysis, this study examines local and national news coverage of the shooting and resulting protests, as well as subsequent investigations over the following weeks and months; it draws on content from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, New York Times, and other outlets, as well as Twitter posts from citizens. The study, which places Ferguson in the historical context of breaking news coverage, finds social media narratives initially impacted the shape of news coverage, but over time journalists ultimately reverted to their traditional reliance on official sources.