How smartphones and social media are democratizing the press and empowering people of color

By Samara Mokaya, Joaquin Ramos and Rachel Mallinga

Nikole Hannah Jones is an investigative reporter for the New York Times receiving many awards for her work in observing racial injustice in America. She has been featured in many newspapers and magazines outside the New York Times and continues to investigate racial injustice in America. Her talk here at the University of Oregon was centered around the idea that social media and smartphones have now become key in changing the reporting game. They are used to tell the true black experience in America, awaken whites to racial inequality, give people the power to tell their own narratives, and changed how the biased American media reports the news. This is something that she discusses is instrumental in getting us to the next step in dealing with racial injustice.

Media exposure, representation, and accuracy is important to civil rights, Jones says . “In 1963, American media did not represent what was happening to the black community in the South. The more violence black protestors faced, the better. MLK knew that in order to get attention, he would need to have children and white allies as part of the movement. The media would pay attention to civil rights protests when white youth were being attacked and white allies were in danger.”

Digital cameras and citizen journalism have led to regular citizens reporting the news, disputing false reports, and having access to insights that traditional journalists did not have. Citizen journalists like Antonio French reported and documented how the police were using tear gas and rubber bullets, reports which disputed mainstream media that reported the statements made by the police. If it were not for citizens who document and dispute what the mainstream media was saying, we might not ever have known the true accounts of what happened to Eric Garner and what actually happened in Ferguson.

Through social media, African Americans can change the narrative of how they are portrayed.   Ms. Jones mentioned the “#Iftheygunnemedown” hashtag, which is a criticism of how media portrays victims of police shootings as “thugs.” African Americans took to Twitter and through the hashtag #Iftheygunnedmedown they portrayed side by side the image of what they think the media would portray, and the picture that they feel best represents themselves.

Ms. Jones additionally showed that there is value in “hacktivisim” that brings about awareness in issues in the African American community that are never covered in mainstream media. “ say her name” was a hashtag that was created to show that police shootings do not just happen to black men but black trans, queer women as well.

The overall component of her talk was to make sure that the message that “ordinary people” are important to the racial justice movement. We are the key components to making sure that people can now be held accountable for their actions. Telling the stories for those who can’t, is important in making sure that their untimely and unjustified deaths are not in vain. Being someone who has a camera means that you can now be a first hand reporter to the events that are happening in your community.