#IfTheyGunnedMeDown: A Public Reflection on the Power of a Picture

In response to the death of Michael Brown, many people are using the hastag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown on Twitter to consider the role that images used by the media have on the public's perception of vicitms.

#IfTheyGunnedMeDown which photo would they use? pic.twitter.com/y3y8tFHtPN

— Aug. 25th #AVO (@WhoISdeante) August 11, 2014

Which picture would the media use #iftheygunnedmedown the left or the right? pic.twitter.com/BXGjJFvRco

— Adam SLANDER (@mr_mookie) August 10, 2014

Here's more according to the Washington Post:

The concern is how media will portray a dead child’s life after he’s slain by police officers. This is the stuff of#IfTheyGunnedMeDown, a Twitter hashtag that trended Sunday as part of the conversation surrounding the death of Michael Brown. Brown, 18, was an unarmed black teenager slain in Ferguson, Mo. He’d recently graduated high school. Black users shared pictures of themselves at their best — in uniforms or caps and gowns — juxtaposed with images that would garner less sympathy and perhaps paint more tawdry pictures of their lives.