Protesters becoming less reliant on news coverage, more antagonistic toward journalists

Many protest organizers used to ask for media coverage, but there now seems to be a growing hostility from people in protests toward journalists - to the point of preventing reporters from doing their job.

Posted 11:02 p.m. Sep 1, 2020 — Updated 11:02 p.m. Sep 1, 2020

Joe Fisher

, WRAL multimedia journalist

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Many protest organizers used to ask for media coverage, but there now seems to be a growing hostility from people in protests toward journalists – to the point of preventing reporters from doing their job.

WRAL News crews in recent months have had open umbrellas pushed in front of cameras to block out the scene, and in one case, protesters taunting a crew walking away even tried to knock down the camera.

"Y'all don't get the police brutality, and y'all don't put that on the news," one protester said. "Y'all don't show that, but you show Black people messing up stuff."

News crews, in return, have occasionally, had to use camera tripods to keep protesters from interrupting live reports on television.

Daniel Kreiss, who teaches political communications at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said he understands the antagonism by protesters toward journalists.

"Journalists tend to cover protests in very particular ways," Kreiss said. "They emphasize things like conflict over the substantive aims of a movement. They focus – particularly television journalists – on moments of violence or moments of protest."

While the media helps protesters publicize demands to a wider audience, put pressure on public officials and recruit supporters, Kreiss said there’s often a lack of reporting on root causes and limited context on what led to the protest. Also, supporters who wish to remain anonymous can often be identified.

"There might be adverse consequences for some people in their personal lives, in their employer relationships, in their churches,” he said.

Social media now makes groups less reliant on news coverage to get their message out, Kreiss said.

"Every movement with multiple cellphones can be filming things, can be producing their own narratives, can be circulating that within their own networks," he said.

WRAL has recently reported in depth on issues like racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and Kreiss said those are the stories that explain the outcome of history and not just a snapshot in time like a protest.

"I think the media could do much better telling those bigger stories," he said. "When these protests spill over into violence, yes, the media should report on what happened, but it’s an incomplete story if it’s not also contextualized within a larger set of issues over policing and criminal justice in this country."

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