Events in Ferguson, Missouri played a big role at the fourth annual Based on a True Story conference on Thursday, March 5. The Based on a True Story conference is a series of panels discussing various topics involving the intersection of documentary film and journalism. Thursday morning’s panel took place at the Missouri School of Journalism.
The four speakers Thursday were Goldie Taylor, Blue Nation Review senior editor and columnist; John Eligon, Kansas City reporter; Alice Speri; VICE News reporter; and Miriam Bale, freelance writer and documentary filmmaker. Katherine Reed, Columbia Missourian editor, was the moderator for the panel. This morning’s panel started with each of the guests describing where they were when the events in Ferguson took place in August of 2014.
Taylor said she was at home in Atlanta, Georgia with her family from the greater St. Louis area.
“The curious thing to me that even though I was tweeting, other journalists, local journalists were tweeting about this,” Taylor said. “It took more than a million tweets for one of our national news outlets, CNN, to really get a hold of the story.”
Taylor said it took a movement both on the ground and on social media for national media engagement to take place.
“I think it shows the limits of traditional media, but the power of social media,” Taylor said.
Taylor also said social media nearly allows everyone to post their own experience, whether they’re on the ground or not.
“As powerful of a medium as it is, it is only as valuable as the hands, you know, that are controlling it, that are actually posting the information and receiving and processing the tweets,” Taylor said.
“I’m an active user of social networks, especially Twitter, because of how valuable it has become to my reporting over time, but I remain a skeptical of the information I find there as I find from Joe Schmoe on the street.”
Taylor is currently working on a feature documentary called, “89 Blocks.” The upcoming film will depict Taylor’s hometown of East St. Louis and will include the same kinds of social fabric and corrosive pathologies as Ferguson.
Reed said Thursday’s panel went great. Reed hopes audience members will be able to walk away with a deeper understanding how news media did its job in Ferguson.
“As well as what journalists need to do now, to carry the story forward and to look more deeply into what the Department of Justice had to say about the factors underlying the anger in Ferguson,” Reed said.
Based on a True Story conference will conclude Friday.