Hope & Fury: MLK, the Movement and the Media

A solid examination of the role that the media plays in advancing and suppressing racism, this documentary broadens its scope beyond the iconic work of Martin Luther King Jr. while keeping him at its center. First broadcast by NBC in 2018, Hope & Fury: MLK, the Movement and the Media was one of several programs that marked the 50th anniversary of King's assassination. An opening sequence that replays the graphic images streamed online shortly after the shooting of Philando Castile by police officers in 2016 is typical of the unflinching look this documentary takes at the way in which racial tensions continue to cause problems in U.S. society. The inclusion of modern-day Black Lives Matters activists such as Brittany Packnett Cunningham help contextualize this further, citing numerous examples of controversial deaths of many Black American citizens and how these have been amplified by both traditional press coverage and social media.

Because of the lengthy historical period that the documentary covers -- stretching back to the 1955 murder of Emmett Louis Till -- there is a lot of ground to cover in its 85-minute runtime, so it's best to view this as both a primer and a reminder of several important incidents. There's also a question of whether this documentary could've explored how ownership of different press outlets can affect coverage. Instead, it prefers to hit the same point repeatedly about how mass media can help but also polarize views about civil rights issues. But this is still a well-crafted explainer of why the media and societal change are indivisible, and how in his handling of the media, King was a pioneering figure in more ways than many people might realize.