Grecia Jimenez Gonzalez

Zack DePiero
Writing 2
6 December 2015
The Sides of Black Lives Matter
Social justice journalism has many sides, some more agreeable than others. Some
deliver their opinions more eloquently and some even more pleasantly than others. As
readers, we are exposed to all kinds of journalism from annoying Fox ranting to
outrageously random VICE articles. One of the hottest topics of the past couple of years
has been the Black Lives Matter movement. Social injustices and police brutality
against the Black community have offset an uncounted amount of activism by infuriated
Americans and even gained momentum around the world. The Black Lives Matter
movement, however, has also prompted some social justice movements by Caucasian
and other light-skinned folks who dont believe in the validity of institutionalized racism
and police brutality against black and other non-white Americans today. On their end,
movements like White Lives Matter, White-Out, and most recently Blue Lives
Matter have been created in response to social justice campaigns focused on black
Americans. The Black Lives Matter movement has been featured in many mainstream
news sources such as The New York Times, Fox News, and MSNBCit has been
portrayed in both positive and negative ways by these different media outlets--articles in
support have created a community of followers while those in disagreement have brought
about violence and misinterpretation of the movement.

The New York Times, Fox News, and MSNBC are well known news platforms that
are recognized by their exposure and reactions to news. The New York Times, for
example, is well known for being a more liberal newspaper and news site with a wide
variety of audiences since its first issues in the 1850s. The New York Times exigenceor
its expected responseis much higher than that of, say, Facebook or Twitter. The New
York Times is a highly respected news source that can prompt action from its readers and,
in some cases, from the people who disagree with their articles--all thanks to its vast
outreach. Regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, The New York Times has been
one of the most supportive news platforms in regards of the movement. Its enlightened
tone and scholarly style have helped raise awareness and support of the movement. The
NYT article makes points such as Visibility and vocalization have value, and asked its
audience questions like What was it all for? What came of it? Where do we go from
here? Rather than purely opinion, The New York Times includes factual evidencesuch
as statistical and testimonial evidencethat adds to its credibility. This past February, for
example, The New York Times published an article entitled Beyond Black Lives
Matter, which discussed the positive effects of typically criticized aspects of the Black
Lives Matter movementsuch as looting and so called anarchy. In the article, which
highlights the awareness that has resulted from the Black Lives Matter movement, the
author, Charles M. Blow, backs up his article with data regarding the number of black
fatalities in comparison to police fatalities-- 461 felony suspects were fatally shot just in
the past year (Johnson; Blow). Blow made sure to include data from other news sources
(including the previous number) such as USA Today, The Washington Post, The
Huffington Post, and even Buzzfeed in order to increase his credibility and the overall

quality of his article in terms of evidence. These outside sources often included the same
data and consequently added credibility to the article.
Among the many news platforms that have featured the Black Lives
Matter movement is Fox News. Fox News, while still a somewhat respected news
source, is known for being highly conservative and sometimes even racist. As opposed to
the New York Times, Fox News coverage of the movement has been unfavorable. Just
several days ago, on October 8th, 2015, Fox News published an article entitled Black
Lives Leader Defends Looting in Yale Lecture. Simply from the title, it is easy to see
that the author, Perry Chiaramonte, is not a supporter of neither the movement, nor
looting. Throughout the article, Chiaramontes only sources are Kyle Olson of
EAGnews.org and a syllabus. The lack of evidence enabled the author to insert his
opinion throughout his whole article, which may arise anger rather than understanding in
the articles audience, as opinions tend to do. The article constantly criticizes the leader of
the movement, DeRay McKesson, by calling him inexperienced and insinuating that Yale
students are not getting their moneys worth by attending a lecture taught by a man with
only middle school teaching experience (Chiaramonte). Chiaramonte went as far as to
quoting Olson in expressing that Its surprising to me students would pay tuition and
likely incur much of that in debt and be fed a line that crime pays, other people are to
blame for ones own problems, and that the system is rigged in favor of white people.
Not only did this quote bash the value of McKessons class, but it also went back to
victimize white people--a move one would only expect from Foxs white supremacist
history. The article, although still using a somewhat scholarly style, utilized a much more
condescending tone, as well as more opinions as opposed to facts. Its audience is

probably composed of readers who do not support the movement either. Fox, known for
attracting mostly white readers, already does not seem like the media outlet that would
praise a movement for people of color. Despite its negative outlook, this article serves the
purpose of exposing the Black Lives Matter movement and one of its aspects to the
public, whether it is supporters or critics and has the power to influence their opinion on
the matter--the article is easily accessible to either. Journalism with similar themes and
outlooks as Fox News is a big reason for the movements in opposition to the Black Lives
Matter movement, such as the Blue (Police) Lives Matter.
Another news platform that has followed the Black Lives Matter movement is
MSNBC. MSNBC tends to be more liberal as well, although a lot of its pieces are written
from a neutral standpoint. MSNBC is a popular online news source, more so than Fox,
which has in part resulted in its younger and more liberal audienceand also the fact that
it is simply known for being liberal. On October 10th, 2015, MSNBC published an article
that compared and contrasted the Black Lives Matter and the Blue Lives Matter
movements and the feelings they have evoked in the community. The article, entitled
Blue Lives Matter Billboards Spark Controversy, does not use many outside sources,
but it also does not use much opinion. It simply discusses the movements and the
response of the public--which in my case happens to be in support of the Black Lives
Matter movement--and the growing popularity of the Blue Lives Matter movement,
which appears to be spreading, promoted by police unions in response to a series of
ambush killings of police officers. Late last month in Los Angeles, for example, about a
hundred local officers joined community members for a flag-waving march through

Hollywood. Many of the marchers wore shirts emblazoned with Blue Lives Matter
(Dokoupil).
All the previously mentioned news sources appear very similar at first. They
include the same basic expected elementsor conventionsof an online news source. At
first glance it is easy to find an author, a title, an article, and sometimes an embedded
video that depicts the article or is related to it in some way or another. However, upon
further inspection, it is evident that all the news sources depicted the Black Lives
Matter movement in different manners. Some used more outside sources than others,
while some used mostly opinion or almost no outside sources at all. Despite not explicitly
stating their audiencesor the Who cares? and Why does it matter? as Birkenstein
and Graff advice, these news sources reputations attract different types of audiences to
read their articles and affect them in different manners. MSNBCs article, for example,
has little effect on those who are not deeply involved with the Black Lives Matter
movement, but because MSNBC attracts a more liberal audience, its article is capable of
inflaming supporters of the movement, as well as informing them of the newest opposing
movement. Meanwhile, Fox News, with its reputation of being a conservative news
source, is likely to attract the more conservative or Republican spectrum of readers and is
likely to increase discontent with the Black Lives Matter movement and its leader
who they now believe to be an uneducated and violent guy because, according to Fox, he
supports and defends looting (Chiaramonte). The previous point brings me to my next
point, which is that titles play a big part in differentiating different sources within the
same genre. When comparing and contrasting the three different news sources provided,
it is easy to see that Black Lives Matter leader defends looting in Yale lecture is more

likely to spark sentiment than the title Beyond Black Lives Matter could. While both
news articles are opinionated, the titles set the mood of the reader from the very
beginning. All of the articles share some basic conventions, and they are all part of the
same genre, but they all have different predispositions, audiences, purposes, tones, and
styles. In a way, these different sources are like triplets. They may look similar but they
develop individual characteristics, they like different things, and perhaps they do not
share the same beliefs. They are connected by bloodor their genrebut they are not
the same. These news sources are all different for one simple reason: they were all
written by different people and for different people. Different people with different
experiences, different educations, and different personalities will write and take in
information differently from each other. That is just how it works.
So how is genre important? If everyone writes differently then there is no point in
learning genre, right? Wrong. Learning genre is essential for writers regardless of their
skill level. Genre tells you what your audience is, the exigence of your writing, if you
have any constraints, the formality that is expected of you, and how much of your own
flair you can add (Carroll). It is not, however, necessary to learn every single genre in the
world. According to Kerry Dirk, author of Navigating Genres, through reading
different styles of writing we become familiar with different kinds of genres and their
conventions. So yes, learning genres is important, but it should not feel like a chore.
Genre is one of the most important aspects of writing--it is the basic structure of writing.
If you understand genre and conventions then you can effectively write just about
anything. Genre is what pulls writing together. It makes writing fit into a category but

also make it different from everything else. Genres make writing unique and change the
way in which writing affects its readers.

Works Cited
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/09/opinion/charles-blow-beyond-black-livesmatter.html?_r=0
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/10/08/black-lives-leader-defends-looting-in-yalelecture/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/11/police-killingshundreds/18818663/
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/another-black-lives-matter-rebuttal-stirs-controversy
Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." (n.d.): n. pag. Rpt. in Writing 2. Santa Barbara: Zack
DePiero, 2015. 17-30. Print.
Carroll, Laura Bolin. "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis."
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 1. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.
Birkenstein; Graff. So What? Who Cares? N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.