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I want to take some time to make use of my professional training as a linguistic anthropologist and explain WHY this is such a good headline. 1/ https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/george-floyd-protests-police-violence.html
I'll probably write up a more fleshed out version of this later with more citations and stuff, but right now I'm thinking aloud, so bear with me (& please do critique, help me think, etc.). 2/
First of all, in today's news landscape, headlines circulate MUCH more widely than the associated stories. (See: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1464884916688290). Headlines arguably serve a different function than they used to - and the ethical implications have perhaps shifted in parallel. 3/
This headline a) attributes agency for the violence and b) attributes it correctly, to police. 4/
Agency: violence is, by definition, intentional. We rarely describe certain things that are destructive on a wide scale (e.g. wildfires, earthquakes, epidemics) as "violent" -- we generally understand that those kinds of things don't have agency & can't be held responsible. 5/
Police responsibility: power differentials tend to mean that police, *not* protesters, really set the tone of protests. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/01/when-police-ratchet-up-the-force-riots-get-worse-not-better/ & elsewhere by @mgouldwartofsky 6/
Especially important to highlight the role police are playing in escalating violence right now since the protests are in response to police violence. That is - police violence is the ultimate cause in any case. 7/
Obligatory bad headline example: the AP's top headline right now: "'We're sick of it': Anger over police killings shatters US." In this take, the ANGER is to blame -- not the violence that led to the anger.
Imagine, instead: "'We're sick of it': Police killings shatter US."
8/8
Imagine, instead: "'We're sick of it': Police killings shatter US."
8/8
Oh look, another bad one - Twitter wants me to click on something that starts "Protests escalate across the US amid curfews and National Guard deployment"
What if it said this, instead? "By deploying National Guard, governors escalate protests"
What if it said this, instead? "By deploying National Guard, governors escalate protests"
