Introduction

In the 1960s waves of rioting unfolded with the civil rights movement, shaking our nation. Following the civil disturbances, commissions were appointed to report on the events, giving detailed accounts of the incidents and the situations leading up to the riots. As a result of their study, the commissions gave suggestions to various institutions, including the news media, to prevent similar episodes from occurring in the future. The commissions concluded that rioting would not have been as severe had it not been for some of the media’s actions. They pinpointed aspects of live television coverage, possible sensationalism, and inaccurate reporting that could serve to exacerbate riot conditions. We are interested in the extent to which the earlier recommendations related to the television and newspaper media have been carried out in subsequent reporting of riotous behavior.

Despite the efforts of the commissions, the broader recommendations made to many different institutions obviously did not prevent future riots from occurring. Two key examples were the riots that followed the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles, California in 1992 and the riots that followed the McDuffie slaying in Miami, Florida in 1979. It remains an open question as to whether the commission’s recommendations regarding the media were followed, to what degree, and if this made any difference in the severity and occurrence of future riots. Preliminary impressions, especially of the King riots, suggest that there were major shortfalls in implementing the recommendations (Nelson 1994). We plan a more thorough investigation of the follow-up on media-related recommendation from the riot commissions.

Assessing commission recommendations is a complicated undertaking, however. Beyond questioning whether or not the recommendations were followed, we must understand the interaction of the media, government commissions, and rioting. This requires us to consider questions regarding first amendment rights and the realism of commission recommendations. We must also take into account the political context that generated the commission’s recommendations and the media’s reaction to them, and the changing qualitative aspects of media coverage.

Background information

Following the series of civil disorders that broke out during the 1960’s, officials appointed several commissions to carefully examine the events themselves, their causes, and their effects. Two such commissions were the McCone Commission (1965), and the National Advisory Commission (1968). Both commissions studied the background of the civil disorders and the role of various institutions including law enforcement and the government. The commission reports and follow-up reports (e.g., Crump 1966; Blauner 1966; Scoble 1966; Fogelson 1969; Rustin 1966; California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission 1966) also contained criticisms of the media’s coverage of the Watts riots such as inaccurate and incomplete reporting and live helicopter coverage. The commissions detailed incidents where the media and its coverage served to inflame riotous behavior and contribute to the frenzy of the community. The resulting suggestions from these investigations could necessarily serve to evade the eruption of future riots similar to the Watts riots.

In 1968, The National Advisory Commission voiced its concerns over live, helicopter news coverage and its effects on incendiary events (National Advisory Commission, 1968). During the Watts riots, KTLA news station’s helicopters served to heighten tension by creating a militaristic and chaotic atmosphere. Even if an area was calm, the sight and sound of the helicopter looming above would add urgency to a relatively peaceful area. During the Rodney King incident, there was also a variety of helicopter coverage, not by only one station as in Watts, but this time by many. Helicopter coverage in 1992 seem to add to the already mounting tensions and to provoke the situation instead of quelling the disturbance (Nelson, 1994).

Incomplete reporting during the 1992 riots mirrored the problem observed by the 1968 commission. The 1968 commission implored the broadcast news media to be accurate in their reporting to avoid further inflammation of the event. For example, the media oftentimes portrayed the riots as being confrontations between blacks and whites, specifically white control officers from the police or army trying to subdue black rioters. The riots actually took place in predominantly black neighborhoods where black people’s businesses and property were also destroyed. However, the media often broadcast the agitated emotions of a white business owner whose property was damaged or destroyed. The commission advised that the entire story be told, including the causes of the disturbances. Again, the 1992 media neglected the commission’s admonitions. Just as in the 1960s, newsmen in 1992 did not practice tough reporting; they failed to confirm information and convey the entire story. Journalists’ own perceptions blurred the reporting of the full story (Nelson, 1994).

Sensationalism was another problem that the National Advisory Commission thought they would find during the 1960s television coverage of the riots. Sensationalism is the practice of presenting a story in an overly dramatic and emotional way. It occurs when violent sequences are overplayed and disproportionate amounts of time is given to emotional scenes. It is, in itself, an inaccurate portrayal of the story. In contrast to their expectations, they found little violent footage in the 1960s news sequences. Thirty years later, however, the commission’s fears seem justified, as the Rodney King riots portrayed extensive scenes of violence and emotionally charged incidents occurring in Los Angeles, displaying the sensationalism (Nelson, 1994) the 1968 commission had dreaded. In comparison to the criticisms made by the National Advisory Commission regarding television news reporting during the 1960s, it initially appears that the 1992 riot coverage has not seen a significant improvement. The media is still incapable of handling riotous events in a manner that does not spark further controversy.

It is not enough, however, to determine if the recommendations were followed. The effect the media has had on rioting must be assessed, examining what actions the media is engaging in or failing to engage in that causes riots to persist. It is incorrect to assume that media coverage will automatically result in more rioting (Myers 2000). There exists the possibility that the violence people witness on television or read about in the papers could prevent more participants from joining. Although this alternative has never been systematically investigated, coverage could actually reduce the length and severity of rioting in some circumstances. We wish to determine more precisely what the effect of the media actually are.

Methodology

The research we will be conducting will consist of a comparative study, contrasting the recommendations to the news media that came out of the commission reports of the 1960’s and the manner in which the news media handles contemporary riotous events. One of our key resources will be the commission reports produced following the Watts and Newark riots. The commission reports recount in detail the events that occurred during the riots. They also include observations and suggestions for various institutions that could help prevent a large-scale riot from occurring. Our primary concern would be the recommendations made particularly to the news media, specifically newspapers and television.

We will compile the official commission reports and the written responses to them for the Watts and Newark riots. We will be looking specifically at the McCone and the National Advisory Commissions. The McCone Commission was appointed following the Watts riots, as their study specifically concerned this riot. The National Advisory Commission was appointed to examine several riots that erupted in the 1960s, not just one. The disturbed areas that their study included were Tampa, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Newark, Northernn New Jersey, Plainfield, New Brunswick, and Detroit. Both commissions were criticized to varying degrees. For example, the validity of McCone Commission was questioned, citing concerns in methodolody an accuracy (Fogelson 1969). As a result, we will also be looking at the written reactions to the commission reports, examining if the commissions’ recommendations were warranted and considered reasonable.

The suggestions obtained from the commission reports will be compared to the Rodney King riots (1992) and the McDuffie riots (1980). To gather the information to conduct a complete comparison, we will scrutinize the events that led up to and contributed to the eruption of these two riots. This data set will include newspaper articles and television reports that emerged during each of the two contemporary riots. In addition, we will include editorials that comment on both the newspaper coverage of the riots and television coverage to serve as supplementary observations.

We will obtain the articles and editorials from six sources. We will use the electronic resource Lexis Nexis to look at the articles that emerged in the main newspapers in each city, the Miami Herald and the LA Times. We will also examine two national newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times and two national news periodicals, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report (Newsweek representing a slightly more liberal point of view and U.S. News and World Report a slightly more conservative).

From the articles obtained, we will identify the reporters who covered the stories as they emerged. This information will help us track down the reporters in order to contact them for interviews. The editorials from the papers and the periodicals we will examine will also give us information on the television stations that covered the King and McDuffie riots. Once we obtain this information we can proceed to contact the stations and in doing so, will request recordings of the newscasts and reporter and anchor information. Once contacted we will ask both television and newspaper reporters questions regarding the method of civil disturbance coverage. For example, is there a prescribed method of covering riot situations? And, in comparison to other news breaking stories, how are rioting events covered?

 

Schedule

I. August 28 – October 1: Compilation of the Data

A. August 28 – September 3: Collect at least 2 different commission reports for each riot.

B. September 4 – September 17:

1. Gather secondary sources about the McDuffie and Rodney King riots.

2. Compile newspaper articles that emerged at the time of the riots (both news stories and editorials).

3. Contact reporters who covered the stories.

C. September 18 – October 1:

1. Contact television reporters and anchors who covered the riots as they were occurring.

2. Look for any follow up reports.

II. Data Analysis

October 2 – November 8: Analyze qualitative characteristics in the media portrayal of riots in the 1960s versus the 1990s and summarize the differences, if any, in relation to the 1960s commissions.

III. Composition of the Research Report

November 8 – December 4

Collaboration with Faculty Supervisor

Our advisor Professor Dan Myers mainly studies social movements and collective action and much of his work has been devoted to furthering the research of racial riots between 1960s and 1970s. Our work will draw upon Professor Myers’ expertise in the field of racial riots to help understand the relationship between riots and the media. A subset of our data will be composed of an archive that Professor Myers has recently located for the purpose of research. Professor Myers will work with us to develop a data extraction protocol for compiling information from interviews and news clippings obtained from his collection and from our own investigations.

Professor Myers will provide guidance in ensuring that the data we compile is valid and reliable so we may draw conclusions from it. Finally, Professor Myers will review our progress and the drafts of our report which will be submitted to a regional sociological conference. We will meet with Professor Myers on a weekly basis, to discuss and monitor our progress.

 

Bibliography

Blauner, Robert. 1966. "Whitewash over Watts." Trans-action 3:3.

California Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. 1966. "An Analysis of the McCone Commission Report."

Crump, Spencer. 1966. Black Riot in Los Angeles: The Story of the Watts Tragedy. Los Angeles: Trans-Anglo Books.

Fogelson, Robert M. 1969. "White on Blacks: A Critique of the McCone Commission Report on the Los Angeles Riots" Pp. 113-143 in The Los Angeles Riots edited by R. M. Fogelson. New York: Arno.

Governor's Commission on the Los Angeles Riots. 1965. Violence in the City--An End or a Beginning? State of California.

National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. 1968. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. New York: Bantam Books.

Nelson, Jack. 1994. "The Police, the Press, and the Lack of Personal Contact." In Civil Disorders: What Do We Know? How Should We Prepare?. Washington, DC: The Police Foundation.

Rustin, Bayard. 1966. "The Watts Manifesto and the McCone Report." Commentary 41:29-35.

Scoble, Henry. 1966. "The McCone Commission and Social Science." U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity.