Copaganda: Mass Media’s Role in Perpetuating White Supremacy

       Within the last year, media outlets have been pushing out pro-police propaganda, primarily as a reaction to Black Lives Matter (BLM) and various other Black liberation movements. The New York Times, for instance, recently published an article titled "Examining the Spike in Murders," which blindly promoted a one-sided view from pro-cop "experts." Alec Karakatsanis made an excellent thread about this piece and others like it, which I highly recommend that you check out. However, in evaluating the origin of pro-police propaganda, one may easily observe that such rhetoric isn't new. Ultimately, the media plays a vital role in reinforcing notions of white supremacy, smearing victims of color while blindly painting cops as fearless "heroes." In this article, we will first look at the role TV plays in perpetuating Black stereotypes and then explore how journalists sanitize police violence, both of which create the necessary illusion of a world riddled with crime.

TV and Copaganda

        Given how ingrained "reality" TV shows like Dragnet, Cops, or Live PD are in American culture, it may come as a surprise to some that police departments have a substantial influence in determining how the police and criminals are portrayed. Ultimately, a positive image of the police is important to present their job as necessary. Thus, it comes as no surprise that, "viewers of crime dramas [were] more likely to believe the police [were] successful at lowering crime” and “use[d] force only when necessary.” With Hollywood's close relationship with the police, it also comes as no surprise that police often cut unfavorable footage from shows like Dragnet as they had direct control over the script. In other words, viewers were given a sanitized view of police, blurring the role that police has had historically in perpetuating white supremacy, e.g., slave patrols. This is evidenced in a 2007 analysis of Cops conducted by Elizabeth Monk-Turner, Homer Martinez, Jason Holbrook, and Nathan Harvey, which found that the series "typically depicted men of color—who made up 62% of offenders on-screen—as violent criminals and white men as non-violent criminals." Moreover, over 9 in 10 police officers depicted in Cops were white, which fed into societal beliefs surrounding white vigilantism and reinforcing various stereotypes about Black males.  In addition, these shows ingrained a belief in the American public that crime is on the rise due to its exaggerated depiction of "reality." According to the Pew Research Center, in "20 of 24 Gallup surveys conducted since 1993, at least 60% of U.S. adults have said there is more crime nationally than there was the year before, despite the generally downward trend in national violent and property crime rates during most of that period." This has led to wider public support for an increasingly militarized and funded police force, with 21% of adults arguing that funding for their local police should be increased a lot, an increase from 11% the previous summer. As we've seen in the summer of 2020, this has had nefarious implications as the increase in the militarism of our society has ensured that the status quo is violently upheld by force. Unfortunately, the growing public support for the militarization of policing has made it increasingly difficult to combat white supremacy.

Mainstream Media and Portrayals of Police Violence

        In legacy media, much of the same applies regarding the way police and crime are portrayed to the public. Many critics of mainstream media have accurately pointed out how MSM smears victims of police violence while painting a favorable picture of the police. This is done in a myriad of ways, ranging from the unfettered use of passive voice, e.g., "a stray bullet killed," to being purposefully vague about the details of police shootings. In an informative op-ed by Adam Johnson, co-host of Citations Needed, Johnson accurately points out that "police often will provide the criminal history of those they’ve been accused of killing, while the officer in question hides snugly behind anonymity." Of course, the media blindly promotes such rhetoric as "the media [is encouraged] — absent any solid information about the case — to dig into the victim’s past." As a result, the media effectively presents a sanitized view of police violence, promoting the idea that the victims of such violence, who are predominately Black, were "deserving" of their fate.  It's essentially a cop-out for police; however, such irresponsible coverage is lacking when the victims themselves are white, which shows how predominately white newsrooms often default to white supremacist tropes. Moreover, just as TV, mainstream media sensationalizes crime, often framing information in a way that is intentionally misleading. Take this image that appeared on CNN for example (shown above). Notice how the chart is presented backward, which, at a sideways glance, promotes the idea that violent crime is on the rise. However, data on violent crime shows that it has actually been on the decline, even the graph provided by CNN, if it was presented forward as most graphs are, supports this fact. Ultimately, it is important that we recognize the role that MSM and TV have in influencing American politics as well as their ability to reinforce notions of white supremacy and ruling-class ideology.

Conclusions

        Although copaganda is easy to spot, the power of mass media that Malcolm X warned about still holds contemporary relevance as mass media has consistently presented our oppressors in a favorable light. This power has sadly influenced much of public opinion and the politics surrounding policing in this country today. Presenting the police as the only solution to crime is incredibly misguided and ignores the material underpinnings of anti-social acts in the first place. Private property, debt, prisons, wealth polarization, and alienation all play a huge part in maintaining crime, yet MSM's failure to accurately present this fact has created a political order in which the "efficacy" of punishment, law, and police have become ingrained into the American psyche. It is imperative that we combat these narratives and create a world in which the existence of crime is viewed as the fault of the community/society rather than an individual moral failing. In other words, we need to create a world in which values of solidarity and transformative justice are the norm.