Examining TV News Coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots

(A Media Literacy Assignment) Jeff Decker (jdecker@ucla.edu)

The Los Angeles riots of 1992 had a profound impact on our understanding of interracial dynamics not only in southern California but across the nation.  During the riots and in their immediate aftermath, TV news coverage had a significant influence on how many people viewed the causes for and consequences of the riots.   Today, we study TV news coverage of the riots to measure the range of meanings assigned to these events by mass media, and to take measure of the kinds of messages consumed by the viewing public.  This assignment should afford you a deeper understanding of race relations in contemporary Los Angeles, and a greater comprehension of how mass media produces and influences our experience of interracial dynamics at a moment of crisis.

Assignment overview. 

This media studies assignment has two parts. By completing Part 1 you will possess some of the materials and media literacy skills necessary to complete Part 2. 

1. •In Part 1, you will annotate three (3) TV news segments and post these annotations – each of which consists of a summary and an analysis of a segment – to the “Annotated TV News Segments Board.”
   

2. •Part 2 teaches you not only how to use television research to compose a media studies paper.  It also is intended to provide you the critical skills to enhance your media literacy – specifically, your ability not only to comprehend TV news coverage but critique it.
   

Part 1. Videgraphy Guidelines

The first part of the assignment asks you to annotate any three (3) riot news segments chosen from the “TV News Segments Database.” 

A.  Choosing Non-Annotated TV News Riot Segments

Locate riot news segments by going to the “TV News Segments Database” and searching/browsing the database.  The search engine offers a number of options. 

The Search function allows you to investigate by Person/Group or Segments. 

1. •A Segment search (unlike a Person/Group search) gives you the additional option of searching for either Riot Segments or Non-Riot Segments. 
   

2. •For Part 1 of this assignment, focus on Riot Segments if you’re searching by Segments. 
   

3. •The Browse function allows you to explore the database by discrete fields (e.g., a person’s name or race or the terms used by a person; a segment’s date, location, or headline).
   

Riot vs. Non-Riot Segments

The “TV News Segments Database” contains non-riot segments (which include non-riot news, commercials, other TV programming) as well as riot news segments.  For Part 1 of this assignment, you are being asked to annotate riot segments only. 

1. •Searching by Person/Group or browsing by field will generate riot segments only. 
   

2. •A Segment search will generate non-riot as well as riot segments.
   

3. •To be certain a segment contains riot news, find the green notation “Riot news = yes” in the database’s Segment listings.  The red notion “Riot news = no” within a Segment listing means that it is a non-riot segment.
   

Non-Annotated vs. Previously Annotated Segments

The “TV News Segments Database” contains previously annotated segments (which have been completed by other students) as well as non-annotated segments.  For Part 1 of this assignment, you are being asked to annotate non-annotated segments only.

1. •Non-annotated segments are indicated by the “Annotate This” button next to the segment number.   
   

2. •Previously annotated segments are indicated in by the blue “See Annotation” link next to the segment number.
   

3. •If the button next to the segment number reads “See Annotation,” you must continue searching the database to locate a segment that has yet to be annotated (which is indicated by the appearance of an “Annotate This” button next to the segment number).
   

4. •If you search by Segment, an “Annotate This” button or a blue “See Annotation” link will immediately appear next to the segment number.
   

5. •If you’re searching by Person/Group or browsing by field, click on the blue “More Info” link (which appears at the end of the listing and which, when clicked, takes you to the relevant Segment listing) to find out if the segment within which this person or group appears has been annotated.
   

Information Needed for Screening Segments

Print out the Segment information within the database for each segment you intend to screen.  In order to screen your segments, you must have the following information:

1. •DVD number (e.g., dvd_number=1070)
   

2. •DVD begin time (e.g., dvd_counter_begin=01:09:32)
   

3. •DVD end time (e.g., dvd_counter_end=01:12:06)
   

This information appears on the bottom line of the segment listing.

B. Screening TV News Segments

Once you’ve located within the database three (3) segments that meet the criteria for Part 1 of the assignment (i.e., each segment contains riot news coverage and has not yet been annotated), you’re ready to screen your selected segments. 

Each TV news segment is contained on a TV NEWS DVD, which has been placed on reserve in the Instructional Media Lab (Powell 270) located on the 2nd floor of Powell Library.  You are required to show your BRUIN ID CARD to use Media Lab materials.  Using the monitors in the Media Lab, examine the riot coverage that corresponds to your selected TV news segments.  Ask the attendant for assistance regarding how to screen the DVDs.

Media Lab Screening Options

a)The main room of the Media Lab contains numerous carrels for screening media.  Carrel #s 36 to 41 and 56 are wired for DVD viewing.  The attendant at the front desk will assign you to one of these carrels.  Also ask the attendant at the front desk to turn on the time counter so that you can quickly locate the exact start and endpoints of your segment.  N.B. There are no electrical outlets near these carrels to plug in a laptop so you’ll need to work off battery power if you want to use a laptop while viewing at a carrel.

b)Private screening rooms are located on the perimeter of the main room of the Media Lab.  Normally, two or more people are required to make a private room reservation.  However, special arrangements have been made to allow you to reserve a private screening room solo – but you must make your reservation in advance by phoning the Media Lab: 310-206-1211 (front desk) or 310-206-1213 (voicemail). You are allowed to reserve a private room solo for a 2-hour block.  Additional individual 2-hour reservations will be determined on an as needed basis.  Reserving a private screening room provides you with:

1. • a spacious table top, which will allow you to spread out.
   

2. • an electrical outlet to plug in a laptop computer.
   

3. • a phone that connects directly to the front desk which can be used, for example, to request the next DVD that you want to view (so that you don’t waste time walking to and from your monitor) or to call the front desk for assistance.
   

4. • a DVD remote control that allows you to see the time counter so that the exact start and endpoints of your segment can be located.
   

5. •Use the SKIP TO buttons on the DVD remote instead of the fast forward or rewind buttons on the monitors, which make the DVD freeze.
   

The amount of time you spend screening will depend on a number of factors.  The length of each segment varies.  You will need to watch your selected segment a number of times in order to generate a first-rate annotation.  In addition, you will want to screen the segments (non-riot as well as riot) that immediately precede or follow your selected segment in order to evaluate the televisual context within which your segment appears.  This context is a key component for understanding and analyzing the meaning(s) that are being made by a particular segment.

C. Components of the Annotated Videography

Each annotation should contain the following 2 components (the third component is optional).

1.Write with a 50 word descriptive summary of the segment – What does the TV news segment say about the riots?

2.Compose a 200 word evaluation of the TV news segment.  The evaluation component should address what the TV news segment tells you about television’s coverage of the riots.  For example, what information sources – “official” or “organic” (see Annotation Tips below) – does the broadcast primarily rely upon, and how does it treat these sources?

3.optional (no word limit): Explain your immediate or visceral response to the TV news segment. 

The total size of the annotation (including both the descriptive and the evaluative component) should be around 250 words.

Annotation Tips

The following is a list of possible questions and prompts intended to help guide the evaluation component of your annotation.  Choose from the list or generate your own question related to the kinds of information sources used within riot news coverage.

1. •Does the TV news segment primarily rely on “official” sources of information, such as testimony from police, elected and appointed officials, or interviews with outside professionals (a.k.a. “expert testimony”)?
   

2. •Or, does the TV news segment rely primarily on “organic” sources of information, such as eye-witnesse interviews or information from local officials or grassroots organizations (a.k.a. “the word on the street”)? 
   

3. •If there’s a mix of official and organic sources, how does the mix affect your viewing?  Do the different sources complement or contradict one another?
   

4. •Are the sources of information “racialized” (i.e., implicitly or explicitly associated with an individual, group, or institution with a racial or ethnic identity)?
   

5. •Do the images on the screen complement or contradict a speaker’s words?  Be attentive to what’s said versus what’s seen within any particular segment.
   

6. •Does the TV news segment’s overarching message or POV jibe with information provided by the news sources?  How so, or how not?  Be attentive to specific words, terms, or phrases used by the various speakers in the segment.
   

7. •Generally speaking, can you identify trends in riot news coverage?  More specifically, is the TV segment’s overarching message or POV consistent with that of the segments that immediately precede or follow it?  What does the riot coverage’s placement within the longer newscast tell you about the relative value the broadcasters place on this topic compared with other news coverage on that day?
   

8. •Finally, reference any course-related materials – such as readings, lectures, video clips, movies, or web postings – which help you evaluate the news coverage.  For example, refer to a strategy for structuring TV news, as defined in the “Glossary of TV News Textual Devises and Terms” (posted on the web) to help describe and analyze the formal elements of a typical newscast that contribute to the meaning-making process.
   

A sample annotation is provided beneath the message area where you post your videography.  For annotation instructions, read Post Annotation to the Videography Board below.  In addition, you can go to the “Annotated TV News Segments Board” and see previously posted TV news segment annotations.

D. Post Annotation to the Videography Board

To post an annotation for a segment you have screened to the “Annotated TV News Segments Board,” return to the “TV News Segments Database” and find the segment within the database.  Click on the “Annotate This” button, which will take you to a computer screen with a message area that contains the three components of the annotated videography (detailed above) as a prompt. 

1. •Post your annotated videography by filling in the message area and then clicking on the “Post Annotation” button, which is located beneath the message area.
   

2. •A sample annotation is provided at the bottom of the screen by clicking on the “Sample Annotated Videography” link.
   

Each annotation – 3 total – should be posted separately on the “Annotated TV News Segments Board.”  To do so, return to the database and locate each segment separately.  For each segment, click on the “Annotate This” button next to the segment number and follow the prompts in the message area.  Repeat for each segment separately.

E.  Additional Resources

You can post your annotations anywhere you have access to the internet. 

N.B. The College Library now has WiFi access.  As a result, you can bring a laptop into the Media Lab (Powell 270) and get a wireless internet connection.  Moreover, you can check out a laptop from the CLICC Lab’s laptop lending desk (Powell 140) and use it in the Media Lab.  This allows you the convenience of screening the segments and annotating them at the same time.  Alternatively, you can screen the segments and take notes in the Media Lab, and post your online annotation at a different time and place.

For more information about the CLICC Lab’s laptop lending service, go to

http://www.clicc.ucla.edu/laptops

F.  Additional Information

Website Posting Errors

If, after posting an annotation, you realize you made a mistake, please contact your instructor with the time stamp from the erroneous posting (simply cut and paste the time stamp into an email) and he will remove the posting in its entirety from the “Annotated TV News Segments Board.”  You are responsible for immediately re-posting your entry with the correct information.  (Note: only instructors can delete postings so don’t wait for an erroneous posting to be deleted before you post the correct one.)

Website Technical Assistance

If you have technical difficulties searching the “TV News Segments Database” or posting to the “Annotated TV News Segments Board,” please contact the Social Science Computing Help Desk (help@ssc.ucla.edu or x62821).  The SSC Help Desk is located in 2041 Public Policy Building.

Due Date – Part 1.

PRIOR to Week 4 seminar (which meets in the CLICC Lab – Powell 320C), post your three (3) 250-word annotations to the “Annotated TV News Segments Board.”  A hard copy of your 3 annotations is due at the beginning of seminar (in Powell 320C) on Tuesday, April 24.

Part 2. Media Literacy Research Paper Topic

DOING A MEDIA LITERACY RESEARCH PAPER

Examining the Relation Between Race and Violence

in TV News Coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots

What is media literacy?  It’s having the analytical skills necessary to critique what lies behind the production of information distributed by the mass media.  In the case of news coverage, it’s knowing how to ask pertinent questions about what’s there and what’s not there.  Media literacy allows you to be a more active consumer of news by encouraging you to think about: For whom is this message intended?  From whose perspective is this story told?  Whose voices are heard and whose are absent?  What strategies are being used to get my attention and make me feel included or excluded?  What role does the audience play in making meaning from those messages?  

Why is media literacy important to the study of interracial dynamics?  Mass media – from newspapers to music videos – has become a primary and authoritative source through which Americans get their information on, among other things, race relations.  The reliance is heightened at moments of crisis, such as during the Los Angeles riots of 1965 and 1992, when television news played a vital role in providing the public with information on and insight into the unfolding events.

Topic 

Use your media literacy skills to analyze the relation between race and violence in TV news coverage of the 1992 LA riots.

Before addressing this topic, choose one of the following two research options:

a) Riot coverage of two or more local TV stations; or,

b) Riot coverage from a local and a national TV station.

Note: There are numerous ways to locate specifically local or national news coverage in the “TV News Segments Database” but it might be best to start by going to the database and browsing by either “segments: station” or “segments: program_type” (for the latter, click on any field containing the word “Local” or “National”).

Questions 

In addressing the topic, consider the following questions.

1. Does a TV station’s coverage of the riots tend to “racialize” the violence by presenting race or racial tension as the underlying or primary cause of the uprising?  Or, does the coverage tend to “de-racialize” riot violence by focusing primarily on non-race specific causes (e.g., unemployment) for the disturbances?
   

2. Does how a TV station presents the relation between race and violence tell you anything about the station’s political agenda or its ideological point of view?  For example, is the racialization or de-racialization of riot violence implicitly or explicitly connected to a more conservative perspective (e.g., the riots are evidence of the need to maintain law and order) or to a more progressive point of view (e.g., the riots are evidence of the need for social reform)?
   

3. Finally, how does the television coverage of the relation between race and violence position YOU as a reader?  Does it speak to your experience, racial or otherwise? 
   

NOTE: Your essay should incorporate some aspect of each set of questions.

Three Steps for Writing Part 2

Step 1: Prospectus

Step 2: Oral Presentation

Step 3: Final Paper

Step 1: Prospectus

The prospectus (approximately 150 words plus 6 videographic citations) is intended to get you started with and give you immediate feedback on your independent media literacy research paper.  Address the following three items in your prospectus:

1) Respond to the TOPIC (in about 50 words) in the form of a tentative thesis statement. Your thesis – the argumentative basis of your paper – is dependent upon how you address the QUESTIONS.

2) Offer a projected research agenda (in around 100 words), including a detailed description of which of the following two research options you intend to pursue:

a) Riot coverage of two or more local TV stations; or,

b) Riot coverage from a local and a national TV station.

3) Generate a videography with 6 or more TV news segment citations relevant to your research agenda (i.e., either news segments cited in your prospectus or segments you consulted but did not directly cite).  Your prospectus videography should not be annotated.  The videography should conform to the following citation format: program date – program station – program headline (e.g., 1992-04-29 – KNBC – Outrage and Relief).

Research Tips for Writing the Prospectus

1. oReview the entries posted on the “Annotated TV News Segments Board.”  Use the “Segment Info” link at the bottom of each annotation to get additional segment information, including the DVD and counter numbers for segment screening.
   

1. oUse the “TV News Segments Database” to locate segments containing key words or phrases relevant to your questions, thesis, and research agenda.
   

1. oReturn to the Media Lab (Powell 270) and do additional research on 1992 Los Angeles riots coverage, which is contained on the TV News DVDs.
   

NOTE: You will not be penalized if – after you turn in the prospectus – you decide to alter, change or even abandon your thesis, line of questioning, research agenda and/or videographic citations as stated in your prospectus.

Step 2: Oral Presentation. 

Each student will give a TIMED 5-minute oral presentation on their research agenda and the progress they’ve made toward completing their project.  It is suggested that the presentation focus on a detailed description of one or two significant research findings.  Students not presenting are responsible for offering constructive feedback during a 1-2 minute Q&A session, which immediately follows each presentation.  N.B. Your response to your classmates’ oral presentations during the Q&A session will be factored into your “Class Participation” grade (see course syllabus).

Step 3: Final Paper

Expand both your research and your writing.  Generate additional citations so that you have 10 or more TV news segment citations AND 4 or more citations from the required secondary source course readings. 

† Stuart Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding” and Darnell Hunt’s “Establishing A Meaningful Benchmark: The KTTV Text and Its Assumptions,” which provide a useful framework for conceptualizing the production and consumption of news.

† Janice Peck’s “Talk About Racism,” Michael Novick’s “Police Killings and the Media” or Anne-Marie O’Connor’s “Not Only Natalee Is Missing.”  They provide examples of how to analyze coverage of racialized violence across different kinds of news mediums.

† Context for both riots is provided in the articles “Burn, Baby, Burn” and “A Changing Mosaic” as well as in the timeline at the end of Smith’s Twilight Los Angeles.  For an analysis of power and politics as it relates to the history of Los Angeles, see Mike Davis’ City of Quartz (on reserve for this course in Powell Library),

You might also want to make reference to TV news coverage of the 1965 Watts riots.  To do so, return to the Media Lab and screen:

† The Big News (KNXT-TV, 8/13/65)

† Hell in the City of Angels (KTLA-TV, 8/15/65) 

Due Dates – Part 2.

Step 1: Prospectus.  A one-page research paper prospectus is due at the beginning of seminar on May 1.  The prospectus should be about 150 words and include 6 or more TV news segment citations.

Step 2: Oral Presentation.  Each student will give a 5-minute oral presentation during seminar on May 22.

Step 3: Final Paper.  A six page paper – 1500 words + 10 or more TV news segment citations + 4 or more citations from required secondary source readings (the latter can be from one secondary source but must be noted four different times within the body of your paper) – is due at the beginning of seminar on June 5. 

– Citation format

• Analytical texts (secondary sources).

~ Use the APA style sheet as described in Hacker, pages 390-417.

• TV News segments (primary sources).

~ End of paper (videography):

STATION, program name, (date): DVD number, counter begin – end time.

- E.g.: KNBC, Channel 4 News at 6 (April 29, 1992): DVD #1040, 00:16:06-00:17:02.

~ Body of paper (parenthetical citations):

In the body of your paper, you only need to include as much of the end-of-paper videographic information as isn't already obvious from your analytical narrative.  At a minimum, that means noting parenthetically the DVD number and counter time.  If the station, program name, and/or date are obvious, there's no need to repeat it parenthetically within the body of your paper.

– Submit your paper to turnitin.com by or before the deadline by going to your www.myucla.edu web site, clicking on the “TurnItIn” link for this course, and following the prompts for submitting your paper.

– Hand in a hard copy of your paper at the beginning of Week 10 seminar.

NOTE: Your videography and bibliography, which can include segments and written works consulted but must list all segments and written works cited within your paper, should not be included in the page or word count.