Race and the Media: How a New Generation of Activists Is Challenging the Narrative

[Commentary] When it comes to race, there are so many lessons our nation has either failed to remember or willfully ignored. Over the past year, police brutality has drawn national media coverage following the killings of unarmed Black men, women and children. And the subsequent protests have also grabbed the press’ attention. But activists of color are troubled that so much of the reporting has framed protesters as criminals and failed to address the larger issues of systemic racism, such as the over-policing of communities of color.

However, a new generation of racial justice leaders -- from Black Lives Matter organizers to immigration-rights activists  --  is using the Internet and social media to challenge traditional media’s stereotypical coverage of their communities. At the same time, they’re urging the media to pay greater attention to Black women, Latinos and Native Americans, who have also been victims of police brutality but whose stories often go untold. And perhaps unexpectedly they’ve played a key role in policy debates over the future of the open Internet, safeguarding the structures that will be critical to any effort to challenge and change the media narrative on race -- so we’re not repeating the same stories 50 years from now in the ongoing fight for racial justice.

[Joseph Torres is the senior external affairs director for the public interest group Free Press]