Trayvon Martin Case
A look through different media vehicles
Newspaper:
LATimes.com is an online website associated with the local newspaper, Los Angeles Times, that is covering the trial of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, 28, a white Hispanic neighborhood watch captain, is charged with shooting and killing Trayvon Martin, a black 17-year-old on February 26, 2012. This particular case has sparked many protestors across the nation with it being reported as a hate crime. This possible hate-crime was initially regarded as a self-defense case under Florida’s “stand your ground” law, but, soon after an angry Floridian population protested against the authorities for not quickly-arresting Zimmerman, it has become a manhunt for Zimmerman. He is now charged with second-degree murder in this ongoing case.
In “An uneasy calm settles over Sanford, Fla.,” Richard Fausset reports for LATimes.com by interviewing the community of Sanford, Florida, where the shooting occurred. He has a typical reporting style that remains objective by quoting what the interviewees have said. The article online was posted on April 12, 2012 at 5:23 p.m. (PDT), and has continued to be updated over the following few days. LATimes.com has many other reporters that are covering different aspects of the Zimmerman case, and they are updated hourly, daily, or weekly. Another interesting note about Fausset’s reporting style is that he gives direct access to his email address and blog. It makes it seem that the reporter is accessibly available to readers’ questions and remarks. This convergence of the social networking is said to cause ethical issues for the reporters by spending much time updating and commenting without extra pay.
Another way that LATimes.com gives access to the Zimmerman case is through its smartphone application. The LATimes.com application has notifications that pop up as headlines and links to the main article. For instance, when Zimmerman was charged with the crime the notification read as, “Zimmerman charged with second-degree murder.” This quick and easy headline notifies the reader of the case and it allows he or she to click the link to further read the details.
Television:
ABC World News anchored by Diane Sawyer has covered the Trayvon Martin story over the developing weeks. As the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin was on February 26, 2012, the network news featured the story on March 9, 2012. The website provided is the show’s episodes site, where full episodes are available for online viewers to watch for free. Since 70 percent of television viewing is done in front of a television set, the “live” show does a lot better in ratings than online viewing. This newscast is very competitive in receiving original programing. For instance, the network news obtained a surveillance video of Zimmerman walking unassisted into the Sanford police station after the shooting. This video footage has been analyzed and shared throughout the industry for closer inspection. The footage was used to look at the back of Zimmerman’s head for abrasions to corroborate his story of a scuffle that allegedly took place with Martin (giving Zimmerman a case for self-defense). The ambiguity of the video opens the door to a debate amongst the case’s media spectacle. ABC World News has also converged with social networking. The television show and the internet site both promote Diane Sawyer’s Twitter account for access to hourly updates on this developing story. The convergence of social media continues to allow the journalism industry to benefit in a positive tone.
Blog:
Anderson Cooper is a respected American journalist that has a show on CNN entitled AC360° (short for Anderson Cooper 360°), and the television show’s blog will be the main source for this synopsis. The blog, AC360° (three-hundred degrees refers to news coverage twenty-four hours a day, every day), is through the media pundit CNN, which is updated and maintained by the marketing department under the alias Anderson Cooper. The blog uses a combination of text and video to report popular news stories; the Trayvon Martin case is one of those popular news stories. Since the blog offers multiple entries for multiple stories, it has filed the Zimmerman trial under “Trayvon Martin Case.” The video files for the case are directly edited from the television show, allowing the popular television show’s viewers to view clips of specific interviews for the Martin case. The blog is also converged with Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, allowing for a community to surround the Martin case. The blog also has textual communication in which the text relates to the video posted with a sentence or two, describing the video’s content. There are also posts that only have text; they report on the interviews that Cooper handles. Within the videos reporting on the case, the newscast team for AC360° is portrayed as hard hitting investigative reporters. The blog does have Cooper as the blog updater, but the news team does the majority of the interviews in the videos. Since this particular news story is ongoing, the coverage on it on the blog is updated every time the television show does an interview or breaking news for the case. This allows a continuity of access to the fans. This blog is a great tool for the journalism industry because it creates an active community around the television show and current news stories on an ongoing basis.
Social Network:
Twitter is a social networking site that enables users to post messages of up to 140 characters, known as “tweets.” Over the years Twitter has become and is one of the top ten most visited on the internet, and it has become a source for journalistic information. The Trayvon Martin case is a trending topic that allows users to read and posts information regarding the case. Journalists such as Anderson Cooper and Diane Sawyer have “tweeted” on this same topic by incorporating the hashtag,“#,” in front of the topic. For instance, the link supplied directs to the community surrounding the Trayvon Martin case by searching the #TrayvonMartin trending topic. The community surrounding this case is outstanding with minute by minute posts regarding #TrayvonMartin. The topic updates does tend to react to reports provided by other media vehicles, but Twitter is a very useful tool for journalistic communication. Since journalists such and Cooper and Sawyer have Twitter accounts, they are able to start or update a trending topic with the most current information on breaking news, especially for the Trayvon Martin case. Their posts are joined with other users’ opinions, or other professional journalists join in on the information updates. Twitter has proved itself to be a reliable source of information that does not overburden a reader with unnecessary details by only allowing the 140 characters; this is a great tool that will prove to be beneficial for the Journalism Industry.
