The London Riots of August of 2011 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The London Riots of August of 2011 - Essay Example One of the dangers of the news is that often rumour becomes presented as fact creating a reaction by the public that can turn to undesirable action. While the news provides an important service to the people of a nation, the reports must be accurate and ethical to have the social importance that is needed to create an informed public. Information that has been created to have the highest inflammatory effect in order to create the best possible entertainment for viewers or readers does not provide an accurate service to the public. A recent example of the dissemination of premature information that incited the public to action can be seen through the example of the riots in London during August of 2011. These riots were the result of both police action that people of the area of Tottenham found objectionable and unjust, as well as the reports made by the media that constituted rumours that had yet to be substantiated. Between the erroneous news releases and the reports on various soci al media outlets by eye witnesses who could refute the news reports, protest was made that was not met with adequate response from authorities, finally leading to riots and looting which resulted in death and destruction. In examining the reports made by the BBC and those made by The Guardian, an understanding of varying perspectives can be achieved as the outlets released news on the events that was based on how the information was that interpreted by the journalists. The following paper will first examine the background as perceived from reading various reports and written from the understanding of how those reports become a story in the mind of the reader. The news reports from the BBC will first be examined for their perspective on the riots, followed by the reports made The Guardian that can be compared to the reports from the BBC. Background During the month of August a series of riots and protested were motivated by the shooting death of a 29 year old man named Mark Duggan as attempts were made to arrest him. The incident occurred on 4 August 2011 at the Ferry Lane Bridge next to the Tottenham Hale station and was associated with Operation Trident, a police investigation into crimes associated with guns within the black community. The IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) was put in charge of the investigation of the shooting according to policy after a death that occurred through police involvement. Confusion within the media occurred through erroneous statements that seemed to be intended to quell the resulting violence after the incident. In the end it is possible that the false information did nothing more than to incite a larger backlash as the inconsistencies emerged through eye-witness accounts and retractions from the police department. One of the primary problems occurred as the media was lead to believe that Duggan fired on the police where eye witnessed did not see him fire. On 6 August a peaceful protest was planned that was to be a march from the Broadwater farm to the Tottenham police