Beyond Ferguson

After the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, mainstream newspaper coverage focused extensively on protesters actions and left little room for narratives that explore the demands, grievances, and agendas of the social movement to end police violence and save Black lives. Over time, coverage of Black Lives Matter protests remained problematic and publicly critiqued. This chapter uses a content analysis of newspaper coverage four years after the death of Michael Brown to reassess press coverage narratives that dominated the protests that followed the police killing of unarmed Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California. Digital newspaper coverage from national, large metropolitan and local papers was analyzed for six months after the March 20, 2018 shooting of Clark. Coverage was also tracked through public social media networks to look for narrative patterns in the most shared coverage.