In George Floyd’s death shows the power of social media as the US continues to grapple with racial tensions, Kathryn Diss states several cases of conflict between the police and the black and asserts that social media gives the public a chance to play judge and jury and better understand what happened in the situations.
Kathryn discussed the story that another black man has died at the hands of a white police officer, but the official account from Minneapolis police just posted a short announcement that lack of details. A passer-by captured a video about the event and posted it on social media, which went viral fast. People didn’t satisfied with the results that these police officers were just sacked, and they went out to protest to demand justice for Mr. Floyd. At the meantime, people who are influential on social media such as politicians, activists, celebrities and athletes called for the officers to be held accountable. The incident just aroused strong anger, fury, and grief online.
Kathryn introduced the event and its following stories clearly, and connected it to the previous incidents. Acts of bias against black American always exist, and there are a lot of “national conversations on race and police brutality”. Kathryn raised a point that in the age of social media, videos and pictures can be central witnesses to investigations and challenge the official accounts, making public opinion play an important role. Another example of Castile case reinforces the idea, Castile’s girlfriend had a live stream recording his final moments, and millions of people around the world watched that. Nowadays, social media makes every person have power to speak up, and society news would lead to discussion and debate online. People exchange their opinions on different platforms and support the people who they believe on the right side.
I agree with you that social media gives each person the chance and power to speak up, and I personally saw a lot of this during the peak of the protests last year. It is interesting that various social media platforms were overwhelmed with different educational and other types of materials about the topic. In addition to allowing people to have a voice in the matter, I think social media can also be used to educate some people about what is going on as well as how to have appropriate and productive conversations.
That’s a good point that you bring up about ‘educating’ people. Taking this idea out of the context of media bias, I think social media is spectacular at spreading information that brings attention to serious topics. I think everyone who has social media was made aware of the death of George Floyd, which would likely not be the case if the story was only spread on formal new networks.