Developing-the-Dominant-Narrative-of-Mumia-Abu-Jamal-1

Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg Senior Thesis Barrie M Adleberg Advisor: Dr Joseph Richardson, Professor African- American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park 2007-2008 Cop Killer or Political Prisoner? A Case Study of the Role of Philadelphia’s Print Media in Developing the Dominant Narrative of Mumia Abu- Jamal Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg Chapter Problem Statement The Philadelphia media has played an influential role in conjuring support and opposition in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal since the night of his arrest on December 9, 1981 The publicity and news coverage surrounding his arrest, death row sentence, and subsequent court appeals are responsible for building a narrative which mainstream media purports to be truth and alternative media continues to scrutinize When Mumia Abu- Jamal was arrested he was known as a civil rights journalist, who also moonlighted as a taxi cab driver Following his arrest he was suddenly transformed into a political prisoner, cop killer, martyr, and threat to the free world The culmination of all these factors resulted in his indictment of guilt by the media long before the criminal justice system delivered its ruling On the night of December 9, 1981 an altercation left 26 year old Police Officer Daniel Faulkner with a fatal gunshot to the head and political journalist Mumia AbuJamal in critical condition from bullet wounds The details surrounding the altercation, as well as forensics extracted in the autopsy and witnesses to the incident, are all subjective depending on the source The news articles documenting the events of this tragic night provide contradictory character analyses of the slain officer and the radical journalist In many respects, it is through the lens of Philadelphia print media that the populace has come to understand the case of Mumia Abu- Jamal While mainstream papers convicted him as a cop-killer months before his June 1982 trial, alternative sources continued to demand due process Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg In the case study of Mumia-Abu Jamal, the perspectives presented by Philadelphian mainstream and alternative media are divergent in their representations of the same man The alternative and national media provide two contrasting portraits of Mumia Abu- Jamal: one a Nationalist political prisoner and the other an unruly black cop killer This thesis will explore the influence of Philadelphia print media coverage in sculpting Mumia’s public identity, by investigating several questions: 1) How did the Philadelphia municipality initially react to his incarceration and subsequent appeals? 2) To what extent has each media source illuminated race politics? 3) To what extent did Mumia’s role as an author and journalist effect his public perception? This thesis will illuminate the relationship between race, politics, and journalism Historical Background: Mumia v the Philadelphia Police Department Mumia Abu-Jamal has been confined to a Pennsylvania state cell for 26 years His incarceration in 1982 for allegedly murdering Officer Daniel Faulkner sparked both local and international controversy and his case continues to generate scrutiny and attention to social justice issues often propagated by the media, political activists, and Mumia’s own commentary on systemic oppression This murder case is one of the most widely publicized death row cases in the past decades in America Mumia has been placed on and taken off of death row three times Primarily as a response to political pressure and swaying public opinion, this see-saw of fatality has grabbed the interest of many political agencies, activists, journalists, and citizens His incarceration has spurred criticism of the United States penal system, questioning the role of capital punishment in this country Mumia’s case stretches beyond the confines of guilt vs innocence His case Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg and imprisonment are illustrative of two oppositional movements One movement is working to silence Black Nationalist resistance by amplifying race politics The second movement exposes the corruption in Mumia’s trial and ongoing racism that continues to impede his pursuit of vindication The print sources examined in this thesis study represent several of the media outlets in Philadelphia which framed the details of Mumia’s arrest, incarceration, and ongoing case The use of print media news often subliminally encourages readers to internalize the news with biases It is the evolution of journalism from perceived impartial fact to a medium of communication impressionable to societal influence that has outlined the discourse on how media shapes public opinion Berkowitz (1997) contends, journalists are not objective bearers of truth, but are instead makers of a product shaped through a variety of social forces The mainstream print media often represents the ideals and opinions of the status-quo, powerful corporations, and government entities including the police force In the Philadelphia mainstream print media, Mumia has been depicted as a cop-killer, racist, and social deviant And while mainstream print continued to assail the public with bylines pronouncing unquestionable guilt, alternative papers, which typically reach a much narrower readership, focus their commentary on examining nuances which question the print media’s dominant narrative of the case Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg Chapter Literature Review The role of media in shaping public opinion is a study that revolves around the dynamic relationship between the news source and its readership Biases in print have the potential to translate to widespread public sentiment based on the dissemination of media outlets The literature examined in this section explores the role of media in shaping the perceptions of a concentrated populace by analyzing ideological biases, journalistic objectivity, article framing, and resonance in print that contribute to the creation of a dominant narrative and often to propagate popular myth Philadelphia print media coverage of Mumia Abu- Jamal is analyzed as a case study exposing corruption in journalistic objectivity in a standardized mainstream narrative that permeated public consciousness Scholars recognize and understand the evolving notion that “People’s reasoning about divisive political issues may be shaped by the mass media’s depiction of the issues because both journalistic norms and market forces dampen strong ideological biases within most news organizations”.1 Many critics, including Bennett (1996) note that “The restriction of media coverage within a narrow liberal- conservative latitude is itself a kind of status-quo bias”.2 Consequently, there is no definitive method of measuring journalistic status-quo biases; however the power of journalism is in its ability to shape society and public perception Mead (1925) asserts news is a way in which people create Nelson, Thomas E., Rosalee A Clawson, and Zoe M Oxley 1997 “Media Framing of a Civil Liberties Conflict and Its Effect on Tolerance.” American Political Science Review 91(Sept):567-583 Ibid., 1997 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg order out of disorder by transforming knowing into telling.3 Print media is written authority as the structure in which fact is served to the public Soloski (1989) purports that “Events can be safely presented as a series of facts that require no explanation of their political significance by presenting the news as a series of facts”.4 Therefore, the theories referenced in this study construct the discourse on how underlying social agendas are embedded in the news delivered to the public as fact Analyzing Ideological biases Lule (1995) contends local news implicitly traces the symbolic boundaries of the community.5 As members of society who author this thought shaping mechanism, local news reporters are thus involved in the cyclical relationship of the story teller and receiver Soloski (1989) debates that “While it is true that news legitimizes and supports the existing politico-economic system, it is not true that journalists’ selection of news stories reflects a conscious desire on their part to report the news in such a way that the status-quo is maintained”.6 Gans and Tuchman (1978,1979) substantiate Soloski’s claim by presenting the natural place to find newsworthy sources will be in the power structure of society because journalists see the current politico-economic system as a naturally occurring state of affairs.7 Journalists are just as likely to be receptors to news as general Bird, S Elizabeth and Robert W Dardenne 1997.“Myth, Chronicle and Story: Exploring the Narraive Qualities of News.” In Social Meanings of News: A Text-Reader, edited by D Berkowitz, 333-347 Thousand Oaks: Sage Soloski, John 1989 “News Reporting and Professionalism: Some Constraints on the Reporting of the News.” In Social Meanings of News: A Text-Reader, edited by D Berkowitz, 138-152 Thousand Oaks: Sage, pg 144 Lule, Jack 1995 “The Rape of Mike Tyson: Race, the Press, and Symbolic Types.” In Social Meanings of News: A Text-Reader, edited by D Berkowitz, 376-392 Thousand Oaks: Sage, pg 380 Soloski, 1989, pg 143 Soloski, 1989, pg 144 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg body citizens Therefore, the facts presented in mainstream print are automatically contorted by an objective perspective because journalists are human Sears (1988) offers commentary on an example of racism embedded in print Sears (1988) asserts, “One hallmark of modern racism is that overly racist rhetoric often is absent while muted racist beliefs are proffered in shadows and shades of expression”.8 And because of the subliminal bias of the writer, Lule (1995) pronounces, “Stereotypes precede reason and thus unavoidably shapes the story of the story teller”.9 Journalistic objectivity Berkowitz (1997) claims that because news is the result of social processes, then journalists can never discard their socially learned beliefs about society and how the world works.10 He builds this theory on the pretense that journalists are not objective bearers of truth, but are instead makers of a product shaped through a variety of social forces.11 Roscho (1975) discusses journalistic integrity “For journalists in the United States, objectivity is the most important professional norm, and from it flows more specific aspects of news professionalism such as news judgment, the selection of sources and the structure of news beats Objectivity does not reside in news stories themselves; rather, it resides in the behavior of the journalists.” Functioning under the assumption that journalists act in ways that allow them to report the news objectively, the definition of objectivity changes meaning in order to conform to evolving practice that places Lule, 1995, pg 377 Lule, 1995, pg 379 10 Berkowitz, Dan 1997 Social Meanings of News: A Text-Reader Thousand Oaks: Sage, pg xii 11 Berkowitz, 1997, pg xiv Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg primary importance on reporting with balance rather than impartial observation.12 News has become the formulaic product of news assemblers, rather than the observations of impartial writers Berkowitz (1997) recognizes this transition; he suggests, “The work of news assemblers invokes taking cues from news promoters to select which occurrences should be acknowledged as ‘really happening’ When news is viewed this way, it becomes not an objective reality about discrete events but instead an effort to present one version of reality as news rather than another”.13 Article framing Perspective, or the lens by which news is read, is a tool used to sculpt public perceptions Berkowitz (1997) describes the study of news like viewing a hologram: “A person can get closer or farther away A person can stand in different places Each new perspective will reveal a different aspect of the same holographic picture There is no way, though, that that a person can find a single vantage point where the entire hologram can be viewed all at once”.14 But if only one view is portrayed, and the other sides are inaccessible, then the hologram becomes one- dimensional The dimension in which the story is explored and relayed to the public is its frame Nelson, Clawson, and Oxley (1997) examine the effects of framing media content “By framing social and political issues in specific ways, news organizations declare the underlying causes and likely consequences of a problem and establish criteria for evaluating potential remedies for the problem”.15 Framing provides focus by narrowing the dimension of the issue to conjure a 12 Soloski, 1989, pg 143 13 Berkowitz, 1997, pg 170 14 Berkowitz, 1997, pg xi Nelson, Clawson, and Oxley, 1997 15 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg more authoritative rather than investigative ethos Nelson, Clawson, and Oxley (1997) also contend, “Frames shape individual understanding and opinion concerning an issue by stressing specific elements or features of the broader controversy” That which is omitted is often as influential as what is printed in the paper Resonance Report and repeat journalism is the result of the emergence of streamlined news This method impedes upon the development of fresh angles and works to engrain a more focused narrative in the public discourse Berkowitz (1997) discusses this journalistic practice in terms of productivity and organizational expectations He writes, “Routine becomes a way of predictability in accomplishing work But because newsroom policy is quite different, the organization’s culture produces an oppositional slant Routines thus become a kind of strategic insurance for producing this alternative reality”.16 Because news is fast paced and inconclusive like an open ended story, as it conveys daily events to the public, newsworkers attempt to meet their deadlines by anticipating or ‘typifying’ the work rhythms required to gather information and produce a story.17 Bird and Dardenne (1997) speak to the effects of repetition on the narrative presented “Much of the mythical quality of news derives from resonance, the feeling that we have written or read the same stories over and over again”.18 Resonance in print media has the ability to turn news into popular myth publicly revered as fact Propagation of Popular Myth 16 Berkowitz, 1997, pg 171 17 Berkowitz, 1997, pg 363 Bird and Dardenne, 1997, pg 338 18 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 10 As repetition in the news turns news into common knowledge, the popular myth is developed Barthes (1972,1991) pronounced, “Myth hides nothing and flaunts nothing: it distorts, myth is neither a lie nor a confession: it is an inflexion”.19 Bird and Dardenne (1997) suggest, “One of the most productive ways to see news is to consider it as a myth, a standpoint that dissolves the distinction between entertainment and information”.20 Myths must be repeated to be believed Hall (1984) expands upon this claim, “Myth has meaning only in the telling; cultural themes and values exist only if they are communicated Obviously, there is no single myth or narrative that is merely repeated, yet to continue to have power, myths must be constantly retold Rather, themes are rearticulated and reinterpreted over time, themes that are derived from culture and that feed back into it Stories are not reinvented every time the need arises; instead, you constantly draw on the inventory of discourse which [has] been established overtime”.21 The Creation of a Dominant Narrative Bird and Dardenne (1997) affirm that the journalistic pretense is maintained Every news story springs anew from the facts of the event being recorded “Journalists prefer to see this as a vindication of objective reporting rather than the triumph of formulaic narrative construction Rhetorical and structural devices are seen simply as methods to convey information accurately and effectively”.22 But as examined in the coverage of the case of Mumia Abu- Jamal, much of the mainstream stories center around 19 Maurantonio, Nicole 2008 Justice for Daniel Faulkner?: History, Memory, and Police Identity Journal of Communication Inquiry 32:43 20 Bird and Dardenne, 1997, pg 336 21 Ibid., 1997, pg 337 Ibid., 1997, pg 333 22 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 51 Lounsberry, she denied the racial undertone driving Mumia’s original conviction and removed it from the larger context of crime in Philadelphia, Lounsberry asserts, “Mumia was convicted of killing a cop in the city of Philadelphia, he has not stigmatized all black males, he is of 228 prisoners on death row”.92 This belief, that race does not drive arrests, is triumphed by the mainstream media Berkowitz’s (1997) theory discusses media’s tendency to repeat existing knowledge rather than expand the dialogue because news tends to reproduce the existing social structure In Mumia’s case, he was convicted by the mainstream Philadelphia print media on the basis of their stereotypical criminal archetype used to campaign and uphold the honorable reputation of the Philadelphia police department • Alternative media created a wider lens than the myopic perspective of the mainstream print from which to evaluate Mumia’s case Articles contesting due process in Mumia’s case represented the articles published by the Philadelphia Tribune and City Paper rather than an overt plea for his innocence Alternative print media in Philadelphia attempted to balance the animosity towards Mumia Abu- Jamal and return the focus of the case to the details of the trial and evidence surrounding the conviction in order to expand the dominant narrative Issues such as the racial implications of Mumia’s conviction in the context of the city’s history of indicting black men disproportionately to their white counterparts, as well as the questionable role 92 Ibid., 2008 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 52 of the police department in this process are discussed openly in alternative print In December 1981, just after Faulkner’s death when emotions ran high and the mainstream Philadelphia news had printed a plethora of stories to galvanize the memory of the city’s fallen soldier, Lloyd Cummings, a writer for the Philadelphia Tribune published an opinion editorial titled, “A Friend Accused of Murder” This article not only examines Mumia’s character from the intimate perspective of another journalist, it reminds the public to refrain from considering Mumia guilty of Faulkner’s murder until the court renders legal judgment Cummings (1981) writes, “It is very important that people of good conscience and better memories await the evidence and the exhaustion of the legal process before jumping to conclusions, notwithstanding the present hysterical climate.”93 The article also suggests the shared responsibility of the Philadelphia Police Department in the controversy surrounding the case, declaring, “They must be prepared to recognize and identify those among their ranks whose judgment is consistently questionable”.94 Challenging the corruptive practices of the police department and asserting that they must be held accountable for their actions was widespread in publications geared towards a predominantly African- American readership The most strikingly underemphasized aspect of Mumia’s trial by the press was the absence of explicit racial commentary in mainstream print Though subliminal discriminatory tones are always present, the indictment of a black man for a white murder was never clearly overt The alternative papers, such as the Philadelphia Tribune, who directly targets the Philadelphia AfricanAmerican community works to also expand the racial dialogue and the prejudiced 93 Cummings, Lloyd “A Friend Accused of Murder.” The Philadelphia Tribune Philadelphia, PA, 18 December 1981: Editorials 94 Ibid., 1981 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 53 undercurrent of the case Staff writer Cummings writes about the racial climate in Philadelphia which significantly contributes to the portrayal of Mumia: “The reality in Philadelphia today is that if you are Black and a brain surgeon, nuclear scientist, banker, minister, politician, newsperson or college professor, to the police and even the FBI, you are just another nigger.”95 Even Mumia himself expanded the dialogue of his case by writing about greater issues plaguing the United States justice system in Philadelphia and across America Tribune staff writer Linn Washington asserts, “The abuses underlying his case: police brutality; prosecutorial misconduct; judicial bias eat at the heart of the American criminal justice system like a cancer Given his national and international stature, he has become symbolic of systemic problems in America and in addition, he writes about the problems on an international human rights scale, not merely his own case”.96 • Mumia Abu- Jamal was indicted in the public eye before his 1982 trial because the articles published by the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Bulletin covering the case were largely character analyses as opposed to a dynamic portrayal of the crime in question The coverage had a direct effect on the readership that comprised his jury as they had been exposed to and influenced by a seven month media campaign asserting Mumia’s deviant reputation and unquestioned instability 95 Ibid., 1981 96 Ibid., 2008 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 54 The stark dichotomy between the pure, white officer of justice and the menacing black, socialist murderer are depicted with utter clarity dividing the Philadelphia populace and stigmatizing Mumia Abu-Jamal as an unrestrained product of his environment The mainstream media bombarded their readership with headlines pronouncing Mumia’s instability and association with radical groups that were widely considered to be violent such as the Black Panther Party and the M.O.V.E protestors Meanwhile, articles recounting Faulkner’s contribution to the force, his unwavering love for his wife, and the tragedy of his death were streamlined by mainstream print to evoke a strong sense of racial identity and support for the sole purpose of delivering racial justice to a white police officer, predominantly white police force, and white community who perceived they were victimized and violated by an alleged black male radical over the man that cut his life short In a December 10, 1981 article in the Philadelphia Daily News writer Christopher Hepp published: “The Accused Friends Can’t Fathom ‘Brilliant’ Newsman as Murder Suspect” This article, points the guilty finger at suspect Mumia Abu- Jamal for Faulkner’s murder It represents the facts as they unfold according to the Philadelphia Police Department He writes, “Friends and colleagues of Mumia AbuJamal tried vainly to divine what had happened But this much was clear: The 27-yearold radio newsman had been charged with killing a policeman, and Jamal himself was critically wounded But these facts offered no explanation, no answer to the question ‘Why?’”97 The day after the altercation between Faulkner and Abu-Jamal, while Mumia is still lying unconscious in a hospital bed, Hepp announces his guilt as unquestionable, leaving only the motive to identify This sentiment permeates the mainstream discourse 97 Ibid., 1981 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 55 even after Mumia is imprisoned for 15 years and his death sentence is challenged On March 23, 1995 Jim Nolan of the Daily News wrote the piece, “Cop’s Widow fights Killer’s book, she wants Abu- Jamal Silenced Once and for All.” This article recounts the continued trauma inflicted upon Faulkner’s widow which in turn rationalizes her vengeance upon Mumia The imagery provided in the text creates a pathetic appeal to this woeful woman and her struggle It was not enough to sentence Mumia to life in prison; he must be silenced as well for Faulkner’s widow to live in peace In May 1995 another article the Associated Press published which discussed the unquestionable distain towards Mumia was published in The Philadelphia Daily News titled, “Why Celebs exalt this Cop-Killer?” Mumia’s name is replaced with his new title: “Cop-Killer” and all question of his innocence is superfluous and disregarded This article goes as far to elude that his supporters are misguided parties on a corrupt bandwagon This is the bias that the people of Philadelphia have been inundated with for 15 years since Mumia’s official conviction in 1982 Therefore, Mumia’s indictment by the Philadelphia mainstream press was not only a means to isolate him behind bars, but also to isolate his story, voice, and influence Chapter Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 56 Conclusions It has been the dominant narrative of the mainstream press that canonized Mumia’s social deviancy as well as his guilt Emotional fervor in the pursuit of a culprit for the murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner generated more articles outwardly demonizing Mumia in the mainstream script the years following Faulkner’s murder in 1981/82 Alternative print sources at this time did not counter the mainstream campaign to convict Mumia with a campaign for his innocence Rather alternative media chose to present the public with the intricacies of the trial they were not privy to because the narrative of the case was dominated by character analyses of both Mumia and Faulkner By 1995, after serving 15 years in prison for the murder of Daniel Faulkner, the case was framed with less overt animosity However, after local and national protests of his death sentence in 1995, the underlying fervor emerged once again The alternative print media at this time began to analyze Mumia’s contingency of support and divulge more case details as they were exposed In 2007, mainstream print media repeated the same narrative embedded with stereotypes about Mumia’s radical character and though written to convey the new information of a 3rd circuit appeal, the articles never questioned the fairness of his original trial or proclaimed guilt The alternative sources at this time offered an alternative perspective on Mumia’s case, continually scrutinizing the initial trial and sentence, speculating that because of the disparities in testimony, Mumia’s conviction was unjust The use of print media news often subliminally encourages readers to internalize the news with biases Ettema (1990) suggests print media works to maintain social stability by applying stereotypes to news pertaining to political struggle 98 At the time of the murder of Daniel Faulkner and conviction of Mumia in the print news was the 98 Ettema, 1990, pg 462 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 57 medium which the local Philadelphia audience received their news Journalism as an objective media has evolved in many ways since 1981 As a vehicle to purport uncontested fact, the mainstream media generates much criticism in balancing objectivity and the interests of their sponsors as well as the agenda of the administration as conveyed through the Associated Press What was once perceived as impartial fact, mainstream media is recognized more widely today as a medium of communication impressionable to societal influence Berkowitz (1997) contends, journalists are not objective bearers of truth, but are instead makers of a product shaped through a variety of social forces Opinions supporting the status-quo, powerful corporations, and government entities including the police force shape the discourse relayed to the mainstream readership In the Philadelphia mainstream print media, Mumia has been portrayed as a cop-killer, racist, and social deviant This study revealed that the Philadelphia mainstream print continually reinforced Mumia’s conviction through bylines pronouncing his unquestionable guilt and threatening association with anti- American movements Alternative Philadelphia print media initially reached a much narrower readership However, the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal gained international notoriety and evolved to represent a spectrum of human rights issues The Philadelphia alternative print news focused their commentary on examining nuances in Mumia’s case which question mainstream print’s details of the trial to expand the narrative of the case The print news sources, interviews, and scholarly commentary analyzed in this thesis ultimately divulge knowledge on how different ideologies and political biases are represented in different news outlets Mainstream and alternative print media are geared towards a diverse readership demographic And while the mainstream press works to Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 58 relay news to the public that appeals to the status-quo, alternative media has developed an ethos in providing counter-culture commentary to give voice to an alternative perspective in opposition to the news that is, by default, streamlined by national media outlets Gilens (1996) provides commentary on biases reinforced by the media He attributes public misperceptions that reinforce existing biases and stereotypes to the role of media distortions After contrasting articles from mainstream and alternative Philadelphia print, and weighing the influence of biases, framing, journalistic objectivity in contribution to the dominant narrative this study can surmise the role of media in shaping public opinion in the case study of Mumia Abu- Jamal Nelson, Clawson, and Oxley (1997) assert, “Frames shape individual understanding and opinion concerning an issue by stressing specific elements or features of the broader controversy” The case of Mumia is only a microcosm of a broader conflict perpetuating systemic racism that is enforced by the media’s communication to the public embedded with underlying institutional objectives The intentional prominence of crimes committed by black men is exploited in the news to foster an aura of distrust and racial division Mumia’s role as a journalist was to expose these disparaging inequities in an effort to remedy government programs to represent the interests of the people In the eyes of the government, Mumia was no ordinary black murderer He was a prominent journalist whose notoriety and association with the Black Panther Party, the MOVE initiative, and other grassroots activist campaigns made him a source of great potential influence as well as controversy As Mr Washington pointed out, “Mumia is symbolic of injustice in Philadelphia and across America The abuses underlying his case: police brutality; prosecutorial misconduct; judicial bias eat at the heart of the American criminal justice system like a cancer Given his national and Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 59 international stature, he has become symbolic of systemic problems in America”.99 Mumia gave voice to those who had been muted and the media campaign engineered to demonize him also sought to silence Mumia by discrediting him Nicole Maurantonio’s 2008 dissertation: Justice for Daniel Faulkner? History, Memory, and Political Identity sought to question the role of media in creating and sustaining popularized memory She analyzed competing discourses circulated among a variety of news media outlets, political activists, everyday citizens, and the police department Following up on Maurantonio’s study (2008), my study focused on Mumia’s portrayal in Philadelphia’s print media to more accurately understand the impact Philadelphia print sources had on shaping the public’s opinion of his character and his capacity to murder Officer Daniel Faulkner The question at hand for future study is, “How will print media continue to shape both public policy and the public discourse?” At the time of Mumia’s original conviction, the print sources I analyzed were widely read and served as primary commentaries on Philadelphia politics However, because of today’s decline in print as a popularly accessed medium of news the next study might better analyze the role of media’s exploitation of race politics through the use of visual influences The influence of visual media in framing race was pervasive in the O.J Simpson case and currently we see how the media has framed Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama in the coverage of the race for the presidency Mumia Abu- Jamal’s case has generated significant media attention and greatly contributed to a hostile socio-political climate The Philadelphia print media’s influence over the populace stands as a reminder of the power of the media in shaping individual 99 Washington, Linn Jr Interview by Barrie Adleberg, 17 January 2008 Interview transcript Adleberg Oral History Collection, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 60 and popular opinion by providing the scope from which a story is read and a dominant narrative is developed Bibliography Primary Sources Ammerman, Craig “When suspect is a journalist…” The Bulletin Philadelphia, PA, 13 December 1981: pg B11 Associated Press “Abu- Jamal Gets 30G For Essays.” The Philadelphia Daily News Philadelphia, PA, 24 February 1995: pg 73 Baer, John M “Marked For Death Ridge Orders August Execution For Cop Killer Mumia Abu –Jamal/ Abu- Jamal Execution set Police on Alert for Clashes.” The Philadelphia Daily News Philadelphia, PA, June 1995: pg 03 Barrie Adleberg Senior Thesis Pg 61 “Black and White issues in a policeman’s death.” The Bulletin: Your Voices Philadelphia, PA, 26 December 1981: pg 27-A Braun, Stephen “A Man of Many Sides.” The Philadelphia Daily News Philadelphia, PA, 9, December 1981: pg Brubaker, Harold and Joseph N DiStefano “Local group buys Inquirer, Daily News, Philly.com.” The Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia, PA, 23 May 2006 Cooke, Russell “Jamal Shuns Treatment, Doctor Says.” The Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia, PA, 28 December 1981: pg B02 Cummings, Llyod “A Friend Accused of Murder.” The Philadelphia Tribune Philadelphia, PA, 18 December 1981: Editorials Davis, Jim “Witnesses give conflicting accounts of actual shooting.” The Philadelphia Tribune Philadelphia, PA, 11 December 1981: pg 1, 20 Gemperlein, Joyce “Woman, Saying she’s Jamal’s wife, Contends He was Beaten by the Police.” The Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia, PA, January 1982: pg B03 Gibbons, Thomas J Jr “Officer’s Widow Recalls Their Last Goodbye Kiss.” The Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia, PA, 20 December 1981: pg B01 Gladstone, Neil “The Mumia Machine.” Philadelphia Citypaper Philadelphia, PA, 17 August 1995: cover story Hepp, Christopher “The Accused Friends Can’t Fathom “Brilliant” Newsman as Murder Suspect.” The Philadelphia Daily News Philadelphia, PA, 10 December 1981: pg Hinkelman, Michael “Abu-Jamal Attorney Requests New Trial.” The Philadelphia Daily News Philadelphia, PA, 18 May 2007: pg 04 Kaufman, Marc “Abu- Jamal Sentenced to Die, Threatens the Judge.” The Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia, PA, 26 May 1995: pg B 01 Lewis, Claude “Did rage, a black burden, trigger killing?” The Bulletin Philalphia, PA, 13 December 1981: pg Lindorff, Dave “Verdict Nullification? 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