Note the deliberate framing of the story around a church the killer attended, despite tenuous evidence of any connection with the killing.
Sarah grew up Christian and knows this sermon—standard Christian doctrine—is not newsworthy, yet she chooses to feature it prominently. 1/5
Sarah grew up Christian and knows this sermon—standard Christian doctrine—is not newsworthy, yet she chooses to feature it prominently. 1/5
https://twitter.com/spulliam/status/1372294278047797248
Many journalists are above all narrative crafters. They know that half the battle is getting people to talk about their target. Often this is simply whatever promises the juiciest prolonged story, but increasingly something ideologically motivated—fitting a bigger narrative. 2/5
Atlanta offers another example of this: the media's rush to frame Richard Jewell as the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bomber. Though it gave them a compelling news narrative while the facts remained unknown, it proved false (and nearly destroyed Jewell's life). 3/5
Though in that case most of the media were careful to avoid explicitly accusing Jewell of the bombing, they knew that simply focusing attention on him—alongside any facts that could be crafted into a narrative pointing to his guilt—would give them a compelling story. 4/5
The point is to recognize that journalists are strategic and selective about what they talk about and what they avoid, and the narrative that naturally flows from a news story often has little to do with the actual story. 5/5
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
