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Telling stories of gang life, while risking their own


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Shawn Cotton
Zack Stoner
ZackTV
Mike Knox
Rodney Phillips
prepared.”Cotton
Davis
Thomas
themselves.”Stoner
Albert Curtis
Michael Tarm

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CHICAGO
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Positivity     48.00%   
   Negativity   52.00%
The New York Times
SOURCE: https://apnews.com/32cf1b6f3e2f4d5983b9687b34681b60
Write a review: Associated Press
Summary

But there are two things he won’t leave home without: his bulletproof vest and the 9 mm pistol he slips into his pocket.Cotton, 28, quit his $7-an-hour job cleaning refrigerators at a big-box store six years ago to enter a new and uniquely dangerous field of newsgathering in which video journalists interview street gangs and rappers in high-crime areas, then post the videos on YouTube channels.Dozens of gangland videographers like him nationwide risk their lives to provide a voice for communities routinely ignored by mainstream media, creating an alternative news genre that Cotton’s friend Zack Stoner liked to call “hood CNN” before he was killed in a drive-by shooting last year in Chicago.Stoner, known by his nickname ZackTV, was a trailblazer in the genre and considered a mentor by gangland reporters around the country. Reports often show members waving guns and cash, or flashing rival gang signs upside down — a recognized indication of disdain.Critics say the channels glorify gang life and provide a platform — alongside other social media — for gangs to taunt each other, thus stoking violence.“If you are making gangs look cool, you’re recruiting more people to join gangs,” says Mike Knox, a former Houston gang-unit police officer.Defenders say the channels fill a neglected news niche, telling important human-interest stories that aren’t a priority for traditional media and telling them from places where those outlets are often afraid to go.“What Zack provided was a platform where (those on the streets thought), ‘I can be myself, I can cuss, I can tell you how I feel ... “You just gotta be prepared.”Cotton, who travels around the country but considers Texas home, spoke with Stoner about the risks of their work: You could invite the wrath of gangs that believe a report favored hated rivals, or draw the attention of young gang members who might shoot merely out of hopes of gaining higher status in the gang by killing a notable member of the community.Cotton said he receives multiple death threats a week via social media.

As said here by MICHAEL TARM