I appeared on the Visu.News podcast to discuss my recent article on the language media uses when discussing the police. The hosts, Aaron Cynic and Zach Roberts, had just watched the recently released bodycam footage of the police murder of Adam Toledo. They were understandably shaken, and it gave our discussion an increased urgency.
This week on the Visu.News podcast Aaron Cynic and I speak with journalist Kit O’Connell about the media’s use of language around police violence and shootings. The favored phrases of ‘unbiased’ news outlets around these incidents are often in a passive tone – not wanting to lay blame on anyone in law enforcement – the same doesn’t go for the victims of police violence of course – as they are often described as suspects.
Kit wrote an excellent and concise piece on the media’s use of the term “Officer-Involved shooting” that asks the question – how was the officer involved? Check out his article here: Officer-Involved Shootings: How Was The Officer Involved? Other recommended reading: -FAIR: Copspeak: 7 Ways Journalists Use Police Jargon to Obscure the Truth-Chicago Reader: How Chicago’s ‘Fraternal Order of Propaganda’ shapes the story of fatal police shootings.
You can listen at visu.news or on Podbean, and find the Visunews podcast on most major podcast apps.
