The Rolling Stone is a pop culture media outlet with a primary demographic consisting of white males without children in the 18-34 age group who have attained a college degree or graduate degree. The August 19, 2014 online version of the magazine posted a short article written by Tim Dickinson titled “Ferguson, Uncensored”. Dickinson’s prelude to Scott Olson’s photo essay, a collection of poignant snapshots of what “cops in Ferguson (don’t) want you to see”, clearly defines the turmoil as a legitimate protest of citizens voicing righteous grievance about racial injustice and police violence. He highlights the militarized police force used against unarmed citizens. He accuses the Ferguson police of “trampling the first amendment freedoms of protestors (and) punishing journalists who seek to document the events on the ground”. The use of close-up photography, blurred backgrounds, visual repetition of raised hands, as well as the writer’s captions clearly supports the theme of black citizens being victimized.

The photo titled “In Search of Justice,” presents a close-up of a group of black citizens protesting captioned “demonstrators protest the killing of teenager Michael Brown”. The images include a man yelling into a megaphone, another man holding up a sign which reads “Mike White murdered Mike Brown, we need justice,” and multiple people with their hands raised. The primary purpose of the background being blurred is to focus the attention of the viewer exclusively on the black citizens even though there are people of different ethnicities in the background. Selective focus is one of the methods utilized to sway the opinion of the viewer to align with the author’s bias of black citizens being victimized by police. The selective focus on the raising of hands in this photo shows the innocence of the protestors and to try and get the idea across that Michael Brown was innocent as well. This helps make the case that the police were victimizing black citizens and Michael Brown is their proof. Interestingly, there are no images of violent demonstrators attacking police, damaging property, and looting businesses due to that selective focus. Each photo depicts demonstrators reacting in a civilized and submissive manner which again helps promote the idea that black citizens are peaceful. Scott Olsen also combines close-up cropping and blurred background techniques to ensure the viewer focuses on the black people in the photos who are looking off in the distance towards what is inferred to be oppressive law enforcement. This, combined with the raised hands, is meant to toy with the viewer’s emotions to create sympathy for “victimized” black citizens. 

Another photo titled “Leslie Mcspadden,” shows a close-up picture of Michael’s mother and the pastor of a church captioned “Lesley McSpadden, the mother of slain teenager Michael Brown, at Greater St. Marks Family Church”. The background is not blurred because the author wants people to see that the photo only includes black congregates and the Christian symbolism may connote righteous grieving. Brown’s mother and the pastor both have their hands raised which could be a sign of worship in the church, but also to promote the idea of innocence. The overall design of the image pulls at the viewer’s heartstrings welling up sympathy for the poor mother grieving the unjust murder of her young son and worshiping to God. This image could project an entirely different message such as forgiveness and a call for peace if it was not attached to the written article and captions.  For example, if we did not know the grieving woman is Brown’s mother, the same photo placed within a compilation images from the recent Charleston Emmanuel Church shooting may result in very different emotions.

Looking at the use of captions in these two photos, one can see there is a big difference in the words used to described the death of Michael brown. In the photo “In Search of Justice,” one can see that the author said “the killing of Michael Brown.” Similarly, the photo titled “Leslie McSpadden” states “slain teenager Michael Brown.” The use of the words killing and slain imply the motive behind the teenager’s fate.  Synonyms for the word killing are “manslaughter” or “execution,” whereas the word slain is similar to the words “murdered” or “dead”. If you replace killing in the phrase “the killing of teenager Michael Brown,” you would then get something such as “the manslaughter of teenager Michael Brown.” Manslaughter is the crime of killing someone without intention. If you replaced the word slain, you would get something such as “the murder of teenager Michael Brown.” Murder is killing someone unlawfully with premeditation or planned killing. Since manslaughtering a teenager sounds less brutal, it would spark sadness and sympathy, while murdering a teenager would mainly spark anger and envy. In the first photo, there is a group of protestors combined the word “killing” so one may look at the protest as being a way to rightfully let the black citizens express their opinion for the police for believing that even though it wasn’t intentional to kill Michael Brown, there still needs justice. The second photo with Michael’s mother in the church used the word “slain” which helps the viewer of the picture to show sympathy towards her mother and sparks anger in the sense that a mother is grieving over her murdered teenager. 

 Tim Dickinson’s written depiction of the Ferguson police and Scott Olson’s photos attached to the article resoundingly support the claim that police are victimizing black citizens.  The visual motif of hands up in surrender to police oppression, close-ups of exasperated black citizens and riot gear clad police, blurred background which align with the author’s viewpoints, and the captions of the photos all support the author’s opinion of police brutality within the African American communities.  The selection of the particular photos used in the article as well as the modifications are intentional to steer the reader to agreement with his viewpoint. This article is a fine example of so-called media bias.  It exemplifies the ability of the media to convincingly report on an event using various imagery to produce the desired reactions from the viewers.
