On Thursday, March 30, 2017, Lambda Pi Eta, along with the Lopes Justice Society and Young Americans for Liberty, hosted a panel on Media’s Influence on Law Enforcement. Grand Canyon’s chapter of Lambda Pi Eta is focusing on bringing relevant and educational interest to the GCU students. With various individuals on the panel, topics on how the media frames law enforcement to the way the media business affects you, were spoken on. Since the age of social media is among us, we find that reporting police brutality is becoming more and more common with technology advancing. When considering many videos online, we as a culture have the presence to see actions and events live rather than wait to watch it on the news. Millennials have the world at their fingertips, via feed, apps and social media. When defining, media framing we can focus on the agenda of the story, how the media focuses on certain events and then places issues within a range of meaning. If many of you have ever watched the news you have witnessed the “if it bleeds, it leads.” With media framing, the goal at hand is what will get views rather than the issue at hand. For example, if someone gets shot, it is more likely to make ‘Breaking News’ rather than ‘Thousands of children get adopted on National Adoption Day.’ The media is a business, meaning as long as you watch, interact and proceed to tweet, they will be in business. The media has and should be giving you the proper information, facts and proper statements from witness and law enforcement. Many of the panelists were for, against or agreed on topics they were hearing for the first time or for the hundredth time.
The panel consisted of individuals of academia, journalists and former and active police officers. The goal of the panel was to leave students with what is relevant and left the audience steering to communicate issues that need to be vocalized and properly fixed. The role of media and law enforcement is to be a bond – not a bond of bashing, but a bond of unity and positivity from the media. We are left with ‘Not what to think, but what to think about’, this is our purpose as living individuals in a fast, upcoming nation of technology and divided nation.
Chapter President of Lambda Pi Eta and Editor in Chief for Her Campus GCU, Lily Moe, stated “Our intentions were to bring a discussion that was relevant, interesting, and educational to GCU students. We were thrilled to have perspectives that ranged from academia, journalist and active law enforcement present. Having a diverse panel brought an active discussion that was not always unanimous, but interesting and inspiration for all in attendance.” Students who have or have not been involved were all eyes and ears for the two and a half hour lecture; many questions were asked and answered for students of GCU. Lambda Pi Eta’s chapter at GCU is helping expand the minds of many students to be involved in relevant issues in our society and culture. We see what we want to see and not the process behind the issue at hand. The advice that the panelist left was: watch all media outlets, domestic and foreign news and dive deeper in how each segment is trying to get across.