Log 3: Jordan Edwards
On Saturday, April 29, Texas police shot and killed a fifteen-year-old boy who was sitting in the passenger seat of is friend's car, while they were trying to leave a house party.I decided to examine how two different news sources report this story. The first thing I noticed was that not many major news organizations have reported about it yet, which seems unusual. However, I decided to examine Buzzfeed's article about it, as well as the report from a local Dallas news source.
The first difference we see in language is in the title. Buzzfeed uses the phrase "shot and killed," while the Dallas Morning News uses "fatally shoots." Buzzfeed's phrasing sounds more emotional, rather than Dallas Morning News' more technical phrasing. Buzzfeed also explains in the title that the boy, Jordan Edwards, was trying to leave a house party when he was killed. The Dallas Morning News does not mention this, but they do name the city, Balch Springs.
When each news source describes the incident, they use different phrasing to describe the car Edwards was riding in. Buzzfeed says, "an officer shot at the car he was riding in." The Dallas Morning News says, "an officer fired at a vehicle." Once again, the Dallas Morning News' phrasing is much more technical, using words like "fired" rather than Buzzeed's "shot," as well as using "vehicle," rather than Buzzfeed's "car." Buzzfeed's word choice sounds more relatable than Dallas Morning News' very technical word choice. It takes the emotion and humanity out of the incident. The Dallas Morning News continues to phrase things in a similar manner as the police statement, without using direct quotes. Buzzfeed, on the other hand, uses several direct quotes from the police statement, but doesn't use the police's phrasing in their own writing.
Both articles used a lot of quotes from friends and family of Edwards. They both highlighted the fact that Edwards was a star on the football team and had a very high GPA. Both were solemn and respectful, never derailing the conversation or making excuses for the officer. However, Buzzfeed's article was overall more emotional, both because of the more relatable language used and because they included reactions from twitter. The Dallas Morning News' article was much more technical. This may be because the Dallas Morning News is also an actual newspaper, and newspaper article tend to be more about hard facts, while Buzzfeed is an online-only source that tends to evoke many different emotions.
Despite who's reporting it, there's really no way to spin this tragedy into anything other than that--a tragedy. The Dallas County Sherrif's department is acting as an objective investigator into this case.
**The Dallas Morning News since updated their article. The version I used is below the updated article.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas/2017/04/30/officer-fatally-shoots-15-year-old-balch-springs
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/briannasacks/police-shot-and-killed-a-15-year-old-boy-as-he-was-leaving
The first difference we see in language is in the title. Buzzfeed uses the phrase "shot and killed," while the Dallas Morning News uses "fatally shoots." Buzzfeed's phrasing sounds more emotional, rather than Dallas Morning News' more technical phrasing. Buzzfeed also explains in the title that the boy, Jordan Edwards, was trying to leave a house party when he was killed. The Dallas Morning News does not mention this, but they do name the city, Balch Springs.
When each news source describes the incident, they use different phrasing to describe the car Edwards was riding in. Buzzfeed says, "an officer shot at the car he was riding in." The Dallas Morning News says, "an officer fired at a vehicle." Once again, the Dallas Morning News' phrasing is much more technical, using words like "fired" rather than Buzzeed's "shot," as well as using "vehicle," rather than Buzzfeed's "car." Buzzfeed's word choice sounds more relatable than Dallas Morning News' very technical word choice. It takes the emotion and humanity out of the incident. The Dallas Morning News continues to phrase things in a similar manner as the police statement, without using direct quotes. Buzzfeed, on the other hand, uses several direct quotes from the police statement, but doesn't use the police's phrasing in their own writing.
Both articles used a lot of quotes from friends and family of Edwards. They both highlighted the fact that Edwards was a star on the football team and had a very high GPA. Both were solemn and respectful, never derailing the conversation or making excuses for the officer. However, Buzzfeed's article was overall more emotional, both because of the more relatable language used and because they included reactions from twitter. The Dallas Morning News' article was much more technical. This may be because the Dallas Morning News is also an actual newspaper, and newspaper article tend to be more about hard facts, while Buzzfeed is an online-only source that tends to evoke many different emotions.
Despite who's reporting it, there's really no way to spin this tragedy into anything other than that--a tragedy. The Dallas County Sherrif's department is acting as an objective investigator into this case.
**The Dallas Morning News since updated their article. The version I used is below the updated article.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas/2017/04/30/officer-fatally-shoots-15-year-old-balch-springs
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/briannasacks/police-shot-and-killed-a-15-year-old-boy-as-he-was-leaving
Something that comes up far too often, and this case included, is the forcing of respectability on those (especially young people of color) that are killed by police. While it's not at all ok to justify police shootings by saying "well he was a thug; she did bad in school, they were on drugs, etc," there is no reason to justify their right to stay alive by saying "he worked with the elderly, she had a 4.0, they did community service, etc." No one should be subject to police brutality based on their "respectability" Jordan Edwards was a teenager who did nothing wrong, regardless of his grades or friends.
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