How Media Outrages You

There’s something crucial to learn when you take the time to consider: what media have you consumed in the past couple of hours? Consider the variety of content that’s available to the average user; one might go through Instagram, Netflix and see what’s on some major streaming channels. The truth of it is that each of these sources presents widely different perspectives for the mind; different emotions, and different things to internalize. Though most of us might dislike being told as such, you are what you eat. So, when we consume a specific form of content on any platform, how does it spark our views of the world around us? Does it have any impact and does it change how we view or interact with people? I think yes and to that matter- I think what we consume shapes how angry we are.

In our time, we are faced with a lot of cruelty, and a lot of uncertainty. I’ll speak more directly regarding my experience as a U.S citizen because I think the current state of the nation is an example of some of the greatest polarization of parties. Regardless of political ideology, I think feelings of fear or anger are felt by everyone and this is utilized by media sources. Such charged videos or headlines are never uncommon and it feels very clear to me that they only add to the divide. Let’s look at the headline of a major news source to demonstrate this divide: Fox News’ headline of “GOP lawmakers slam Democrats for skipping fraud hearing.” It intentionally creates a feeling of incompetence for one of the parties and that creates anger. Truly, at the end of the day, it’s necessary for the media to focus on those feelings of anger they might create and to keep the one thing that all content requires: your attention.

To get you to keep watching a channel or to check back in on the reporter to see what’s changed in the news, content requires your focus and emotion to keep you tethered. It is in no way invalid to feel anger about political news (of either political side) yet the issue is what we choose to be angry about. So, now it is crucial to examine cases of Alex Pretti, Renee Nicole Good, Lorenzo Saldago Araujo, and Joan Sebastion Guerrero. The first fault is already that two of these names are more recognizable than the other. As I’ve said previously; this falls beyond a political spectrum issue. The murder of four people at the hands of a government organization should spark outrage from absolutely any person living in the United States. Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good were killed while protesting the presence of ICE agents in their cities; a movement that’s spread nationwide. What I aim to argue is how we’re shaped to care about murder.

The Department of Justice defines their policy simply: “to value and preserve human life.” When faced with the loss of four people living on American soil, this may feel like cognitive dissonance. So, let’s consider the way four lives were lost. Alex Pretti was shot after shouting with and struggling with the agents in the city of Minneapolis. He had a handgun in his waistband which he did not reach for, hold or use. He kicked the taillight of one of the agents before being pushed around. He did not reach for his gun once and he was shot ten times. Several videos of Alex Pretti’s death have circulated, CNN published an article detailing him and his life- how he was a nurse for veterans. His story has been told, yet he has not received justice but only recognition. Renee Nicole Good was shot by an ICE agent seventeen days before Alex Pretti. She was shot inside of her car, which many argue she was attempting to weaponize which (according to the Department of Justice) gives an officer the ability to use deadly force. Again, there isn’t much to say but it is another unnecessary loss of a human life. A cruel and upsetting loss, and that’s what it should be to everyone. It was certainly viewed as such, with both Pretti and Good receiving the protests and outrage they so deserve. A search on social media will reveal hundreds of thousands of videos detailing their last moments and even more documenting the upset the American people feel at witnessing death in their streets.

One search for the men killed this month will bring you far, far less. Their names don’t come to the top of the search; almost hidden by countless articles detailing a “man” killed or a “Colombian national” killed. Nationality so frequently next to his name. I understand the fact, yet it is hard to view it as something more than a bleak justification; the man might be an illegal immigrant which could be a threat to public safety- as articulated by the agent who had killed him. Joan Sebastian Guerrero is not a name as often said as Alex Pretti or Renee Nicole Good but it is still a blatant display or disregard and even of repressed emotions within the American people. There was no outrage, no protest erupting after his death. Even if the news has covered the case in such a way, what about short form content? There’s still hardly anything to show. His case, one that deserves justice and recognition lies in partial anonymity- nobody is angry. It has everything to do with his race and everything to do with how much is shown on a screen. There has been no post detailing his hobbies. Poetry he may have written. The work he did for others. In most of the articles he is the man- in others he is the Columbian man.

With Lorenzo Saldago Araujo- gratefully, some people are angry. He is highlighted to be undocumented, but he is also regarded as something new: someone who was hunted. I have mentioned anger so frequently throughout this article because it holds the special place of being one of the few emotions that sparks action. When there are hundreds of thousands of people seeing, reacting and feeling empathy for the death of a man and the loss his family is hurting from- they will feel anger that it occurred unjustly. I pray that they will act from that anger in a way that is peaceful and impactful. Again- Lorenzo Saldago Araujo is still in anonymity compared to Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

I feel shame, and I feel incoherence. When it’s all said and done there’s still little to say with four people who’ve lost their words forever. We are angrier for some because of how much more we’ve seen it. Bodycam footage, the bystanders perspective. Yet, at the end of the day why should we be conditioned to care about the video? My final argument and my final ask would be to care outside of the 24/7 news cycle. To care beyond the feed from scrolling. To see what’s in your community, beyond your community, catch one article that screams of injustice, hold it and act on it. All I can ask is that anger is utilized for positive action. All I can hope for is anonymity to dissolve when anger is no longer spurred by just the media we consume daily but what we consume intentionally and what we then create from it.