Mike Brown's murder has become one of the most fundamental instances of police
brutality called upon in the fight for accountability and transparency among citizens and
their police departments, and the case attributed to bringing the Black Lives Matter
movement into the spotlight. Mike Brown was fatally shot on August 9th, 2014, and the
only video recording known to exist captured the aftermath of the event, and was taken
from across the street. The case fit what has come to be known as the standard instance of
police brutality, Black unarmed man shot and killed by white cop. Unfortunately, the
narrative that followed the case also fit the standardized way of depicting a Black victim.
For instance, the news media initially used unflattering photos of Mike Brown
posthumous in their retelling of the event, and several news media was critiqued for their
negative portrayal of Brown. However, thanks to the efforts of residents of Ferguson,
visiting activists, and a community of concerned citizens online, another representation of
Brown was also shown through sharing images of Brown in his high-school graduation
cap and gown, smiling, or with his family, in attempts to challenge the traditional gaze of
Black criminality.
The Video(s):
In this chapter I analyzed 39 videos recorded by DeRay Mckesson during his time in
Ferguson and throughout the protests there. These videos ranged in content, but due to
them originally being captured on Vine, all were around 6-7 seconds in length.
Additionally, each were intentionally recorded and shared with the public in order to
expose the reality of the activists on the ground in Ferguson. Some videos focused on the
militarization of police, while others showed simple moments of unity between activists,
residents of Ferguson, and all of the protestors. While I found all of these videos on
Twitter, most were originally created on the platform Vine, which allowed its users to
record and share 7-second looped videos to a variety of platforms and on their personal
account. Since the interface of Vine does not encourage user interaction, Twitter was the
most appropriate site to complete analysis of user responses to these videos.
The Aftermath:
After the fatal shooting of Mike Brown, Ferguson residents gathered around the street
while his body laid partially covered under a tarp for four hours. The hashtag #ferguson
quickly began to grow as America became more concerned with the death of another
Black man at the hands of police, and the hashtag grew into weeks of protests and riots
(both locally and nationally), and even garnered support globally. Additionally, the
widespread acknowledgement, and to some extent support of Mike Brown, lead to what
is now known as The Black Lives Matter Movement. Largely fueled by existing
community tensions between Ferguson PD and the community they serve and anger at
police for their handling of the incident, #Ferguson quickly grew to represent the larger
structural issues of law enforcements excessive use of force, militarization of police, and
lack of transparency with the public and communities they serve.
The Case:
This chapter is part one of a three part analysis of citizen-generated videos of
police brutality, and will will consist of a case study of the activism and public discourse
surrounding Mike Brown's death. More specifically, this chapter will analyze Twitter
comments that respond to citizen-generated videos that either mention or capture police
in action, and are taken during the aftermath of Mike Brown's death in Ferguson. I utilize
theories of the public sphere and counterpublics, as well as Castells development of
‘mass self-communication’ to reinforce the unique and influential capabilities of the
videos created in Ferguson that led to the widespread activist movements, and eventually
policy change.
I use a critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA) of comments
surrounding the shooting death of Michael Brown, where I code for understandings of the
case and perceptions of the police. Given the ubiquity of citizen-generated videos in this
case and the widespread use of the #Ferguson, the public was given the opportunity to
view and share in some of the societal pain facing Black communities and view the
peaceful protests in ways that challenged the one-sided narratives of Black criminality
that Police Departments feed to the news media after a controversial police-citizen
encounter. Further, I focus on interrogating the role that citizen-generated videos related
to the protests and killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO, played in the public’s
perception and understanding of the controversial event. Mainly, I am looking at the
impacts of these videos in two ways; public perception of police as shown through
Twitter commentary and department, local, state, and federal level policy change that
relates to police brutality.
I use each so I can explore how citizen-generated videos aid in counterpublic
movements that challenge mainstream accounts, but also to determine whether these
videos and counter-networks were able to bring tangible change in the city of Ferguson
and beyond. Additionally, I am interested in the ways self-efficacy is reflected through a
citizens decision to record rather than solely attending the protest or tweeting about it.
Drawing on qualitative methods of critical race theory, technocultural analysis,
and discourse analysis, this chapter is guided by three central research questions: