July 7, 2016 (the Dallas Police Officer shooting occurred July 9, 2016 and was not included in PEW’s original dataset). Despite the Twitter-trending status of #Ferguson and #BLM, public opinion data from PEW revealed one-third of Americans were unfamiliar with the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) and/or did not understand its goals at the time of the study. The information discrepancy raises the question of whether there were systemic gaps in traditional news coverage of the events relating to the movement and of the movement itself. #BLM was also tweeted eight times more frequently than #ALM and/or #BlueLM, creating inquiry surrounding the extent to which traditional media echoed this pattern. For these reasons, this study aims to explain the movements themselves, examine newspapers to ascertain the extent to which peak coverage echoed peak tweet content, determine the extent to which newspaper coverage is partisan by state, and evaluate the political implications partisan coverage has on improving the criminal justice system in America. Background Lives Matter” was first posted on Facebook in July of 2013 by Alicia Garza, one “Black of three co-founders of the Black Lives Matter organization (BLMo—in reference to the organization), as an exasperated response to George Zimmerman fatally shooting Trayvon Martin. Between Ferguson’s 2014 eruption and July 7, 2016, #BLM was tweeted approximately 11.8 million times. Based on PEW’s usage chart, the hashtag was most used after Michael Brown’s killing, 12-year-old Tamir Rice’s killing, Darren Wilson’s indictment, Freddie Gray’s killing while in police custody, the Charleston, South Carolina shooting that killed nine Black people, and Sandra Bland’s hanging, all of which went viral on social media (See Figure 1). These viral events, along with the day-to-day fatal actions towards Blacks that never go viral, are
July 7, 2016 (the Dallas Police Officer shooting occurred July 9, 2016 and was not included in PEW’s original dataset). Despite the Twitter-trending status of #Ferguson and #BLM, public opinion data from PEW revealed one-third of Americans were unfamiliar with the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) and/or did not understand its goals at the time of the study. The information discrepancy raises the question of whether there were systemic gaps in traditional news coverage of the events relating to the movement and of the movement itself. #BLM was also tweeted eight times more frequently than #ALM and/or #BlueLM, creating inquiry surrounding the extent to which traditional media echoed this pattern. For these reasons, this study aims to explain the movements themselves, examine newspapers to ascertain the extent to which peak coverage echoed peak tweet content, determine the extent to which newspaper coverage is partisan by state, and evaluate the political implications partisan coverage has on improving the criminal justice system in America. Background “Black Lives Matter” was first posted on Facebook in July of 2013 by Alicia Garza, one of three co-founders of the Black Lives Matter organization (BLMo—in reference to the organization), as an exasperated response to George Zimmerman fatally shooting Trayvon Martin. Between Ferguson’s 2014 eruption and July 7, 2016, #BLM was tweeted approximately 11.8 million times. Based on PEW’s usage chart, the hashtag was most used after Michael Brown’s killing, 12-year-old Tamir Rice’s killing, Darren Wilson’s indictment, Freddie Gray’s killing while in police custody, the Charleston, South Carolina shooting that killed nine Black people, and Sandra Bland’s hanging, all of which went viral on social media (See Figure 1). These viral events, along with the day-to-day fatal actions towards Blacks that never go viral, are
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