Description - The Politics of Force by Regina G. Lawrence
When police brutality becomes front-page news, it triggers a sudden, intense interaction between the media, the public, and the police. The author ably demonstrates how these news events provide the raw materials for looking at underlying problems in American society. Journalists, policy makers, and the public use such stories to define a problematic situation, and this process of problem definition gives the media a crucial role in our public policy debates. The author analyzes more than 500 incidents of police use-of-force covered by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times from 1981 to 1991. The incidents include but are mot limited to those defined as "police brutality". She reveals the structural and cultural forces that both shape the news and allow police to define most use-of-force incidents, which occur in far greater numbers than are reported, she says. She explores the dilemma of obtaining critical media perspectives on policing policies. She examines the factors that made the coverage of the Rodney King beating so significant, particularly after the incident was captured on video.
At the same time, she shows how an extraordinary news event involving the police can b
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The Politics of Force: Media and the Construction of Police Brutality, Updated Edition
