Protest Communication Ecology and Community Racial Crisis: The Case of the Michael Brown Shooting Death and Subsequent Civil Unrest.

On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African American, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a Caucasian police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting was followed by a vigil and peaceful protests in Ferguson that at times gave way to rioting and destruction of property. Overall these events represent a community racial crisis. Using a survey of 1,014 St. Louis residents, this study examines communication resource use related to this community crisis among community members who did and did not choose to participate in protest, and explores the influence of this communication resource use on attitudes about Ferguson people and events and overall Ferguson attitude polarization. Our results indicate a robust protest communication ecology that includes local mediated communication sources, opinion expression via social media, and in-person conversations with discordant others. A smaller non-protest communication ecology is also identified. In terms of attitudes, use of both communication ecologies are related to attitudes about police officer Darren Wilson and the grand jury decision not to prosecute Wilson. However, only use of non-protest communication resources was found to be related to overall attitude polarization. Implications for post-Ferguson sociopolitical change are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]