Kionna Stanley

Trial of Jason Van Dyke

A national news story that has been followed and covered by various news sources, the trial of Jason Van Dyke, has finally come to an end and some may say justice has been served. The Black Lives Matter movement fights for justice for innocent black lives, and Laquan McDonald’s is a success story.

Jason Van Dyke is a 40 year-old Chicago police officer who has been charged and found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery due to the murder of a 17 year-old male, Laquan McDonald, back in 2014.

A police report in connection to the shooting consisted of Van Dyke claiming to have acted out in self-defense. He mentioned that he feared his life and Laquan was a threat. However, the tape proved it to be a contradiction. Large protests arose in the city of Chicago after the video footage was released from the incident.

Trial of Jason Van Dyke

Some sources share the news on the trial from liberal, conservative, or middle-of-the-road angles, and there are similarities and differences in the way it is presented.

These sources would differ between whether they mentioned their race or did not. CNN seems as though they refrained from using language that highlighted their race, instead it was presented more in a visual sense using pictures and/or videos.

Justice for Laquan!

Each source was sure to use the same graduation picture of Laquan. On the other hand, Fox and ABC seemed to have included descriptive words throughout the article. For

Jason Van Dyke dabs his eyes as he testifies in his murder trial on Oct. 2, 2018

example, the journalists especially described the emotions going on to give the reader an idea of the intensity in the courtroom.

The clips from each source revealed the report of the verdict, which showed Jason and his emotionless reaction while McDonald’s family wept in the back.