#IfTheyGunnedMeDown

About This Lesson

This lesson continues our exploration of the power and pitfalls of images. It is designed to help students explore the impact of editorial decisions by focusing on the issues invoked by the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown. Students will analyze various images of Michael Brown that surfaced in the wake of his shooting, explore the social media response to these images, and then develop journalistic guidelines for image selection. Examining this social media campaign through the lens of news literacy will help students challenge and extend their evolving understanding of bias, the role of the press (and other media makers), and the importance of journalistic standards.

Essential Questions

• How can photos add to our understanding of a person or a news story? How might they detract from or limit that understanding?
• What standards should journalists use to select images to accompany news reports?
• How can individuals and groups respond when they perceive stereotypes and other possible distortions in a news report?

Learning Objectives

• Students will be able to critically examine and analyze a photograph.
• Students will be able to understand the complex factors that influence image selection.
• Students will be able to develop guidelines and a decision-making process for choosing imagery to report on controversial events.

Activities

Activity 1: Analyze Images of Michael Brown

This lesson expands on the previous discussion of the power of visual images and the way they influence our response to news and information. Use the Analyzing Visual Images teaching strategy to look at three images of Michael Brown.

Break the class into pairs or small groups and give each group one photo of Michael Brown. Tell them that their assignment is to look at the photograph very carefully and analyze only what they see. They must try not to bring what they know or think they know about Michael Brown into their analysis.

After students in each group have carefully observed the photograph, have them write down everything they see without providing any interpretation or commentary.

Have students consider these questions in their responses: Based on your observations, how would you describe this person? What factors shaped your interpretation? How do you think others might interpret the image and why? Now brainstorm a list of what you don't know. What questions do you have?

Reconvene the class. For each photograph, have the assigned groups or pairs report on what they observed in the photo, what kind of person they think he is based on this image, and what questions they have after viewing their photo. (If students don’t raise questions about the photo’s source, you may want to suggest additional questions, such as: Where did the photo come from? How did the news source get the photo and/or from whom? Were there other images available?)

Of the three photographs, which would students have selected to run if they were the editors of a major newspaper? Why?

Activity 2: Explore the Response to Michael Brown’s Photograph

Show the video “#IfTheyGunnedMeDown,” which addresses the Twitter campaign that emerged in response to a photograph of Michael Brown that was widely used in the aftermath of the shooting.

Provide students with time to reflect privately on the video in their journals. Does the hashtag campaign resonate with them? Do they remember their own response to the photograph of Michael Brown or the hashtag campaign when it launched? What kinds of thoughts and feelings does the hashtag campaign evoke for them?

Discuss students’ thoughts about the video and the hashtag campaign. What was Kenya Vaughn referring to when she said, “People always say, ‘Well, if it bleeds, it leads,’ or ‘The more sensational, the more hits’”? What does that reflect about the demands on news organizations? According to the journalists, what was the impact of the hashtag campaign? How can journalists balance the demands of their job—in the words of Yamiche Alcindor, “As a reporter, you’re up against deadlines, we’re up against word limits, we’re up against all this stuff that are kind of making me try to simplify a story”—with the need to portray individuals objectively and thoughtfully?

Activity 3: Develop Guidelines for Image Selection

Working in groups, challenge students to create a policy that they think news organizations should use to guide image selection when a young person dies or is killed. Direct students to be as specific as possible and to be prepared to justify their policy to the class.

You may want to encourage students to think about how to balance high standards with practical realities and the need for flexibility as they develop their ideas.

Use a series of questions to guide the development of students’ proposed standards, such as:

• Should the number of pictures published be standardized?
• What if there is only time or space (on the air or in print) to use one picture? How should that picture be selected?
• Should the lead photo be provided by the family? Should the family approve the photos to be used?
• Can photos that are publicly available on the Internet (e.g., from the teen’s social media accounts) be used?
• What if only one image of the victim is initially available, but it is clear that some people will view it negatively? Should it still be used, or should it be omitted?
• Will your standards be applied in all cases, or will it depend on the circumstances of the young person’s death?
• What other details are necessary in order to ensure fairness and accuracy?

Once students have developed their policies in groups, reconvene the class and allow a representative from each group to explain his or her group’s policy, followed by questions from the rest of the class. Are there ways in which the policies are not realistic or practical?

Once all the groups have presented, give students an opportunity to revise their policies or have the class vote on which policy they believe would be most effective at ensuring the greatest degree of fairness and accuracy.

Activity 4: Offer Time for Journal Reflection

As a wrap-up, ask students to document in their journals what strategies they can use to critically evaluate images used in social media and news reports in the future. What questions should they ask about these images? What can they do if they perceive stereotypes or other distortions?