Media Research On The Case Of Sandra Bland

This media research will be using narrative analysis on two politically, demographically contrasting news publications on the case of Sandra Bland. An African American woman whom was stopped and arrested over a traffic stop by the police officer Brian Encinia. Dash cam footage showed the officer forcing Bland out of the car, threatening to ‘light her up’ and using force towards Bland. Three days later, Bland was found dead in her cell, the courts ruled this as a ‘suicide.’ However, the African American community are unaccepting of police claims. The independent, is a UK conservative white middle class targeted publications which will be contrasted with ‘The Root’. A democratic African American targeted news publication which seeks to highlight
Rather, the article mentions Bland’s ethnicity and gender as a ‘young black woman’ but does not make sense of this as being a contributor towards the aggressive treatment Bland had received by police. This ignores current ‘trends’ of police killing of unarmed black citizens. Instead, the title erases Bland from being a victim and aims to construct a story which refrains from criticising the police. On the contrary, The Root depicts a story of police brutality and racial injustice within the criminal justice system in America. The title states ‘Bernie Saners is right Sandra Bland would be alive today if she were a white woman.’ The article highlights how Bland’s image does not conform to standards of femininity. Bland is not a white woman, therefore is less likely to be victimised, but is likely to be criminalised and mistreated by the police. Bland being black and a woman is a factor towards the death of Bland. Police brutality and ‘suspicious’ deaths does not happen to white women. Therefore, the story highlights institutionalised racism and anti-police
The article stated how Police officer Brian Encinia, ‘instigated, agitated and escalated his encounter with Bland,’ the officer was ‘forceful’ and threated to ‘light her up’ with a taser before ‘brutalizing’ Bland on the pavement before arresting Bland. This constructs the story differently from the independent. Huff post black voices construct Encinia as violent, by highlighting how the officer was not hesitant to attack Bland. The article described Encinia’s action towards Bland as ‘brutalizing,’ this conceptualises Encinia as a vicious killer. The term ‘brutalizing’ can be associated with the media’s fascination with ‘wound culture.’ Serial killings in the media uses bodies to emphasise the severity of the killer. Huff post black voices has taken this element to represent police officer Encina as a serial killer. This strengthens the narrative of Sandra Bland being subjected to a racial and sexist police murder. This research will go into detail about wound culture and Sandra Bland in the discussion