Yvonne Shute
ETEC 523
Format Analysis
The Los Angeles Riots took place in LA County between April 29 and May 4, 1992. On April 29, four LAPD officers who
had been charged with using excessive force against a civilian by the name of Rodney King were acquitted. The car chase, beating,
and subsequent trial were widely publicized. The riots took place after the acquittal. On the 29th of April, images of the attack on
Reginald Denny at the corner of Florence and Normandy were all over the news. The days following were a barrage of footage of
looting, arson, and violence.
This was the first incidence of civil unrest that had occurred geographically close enough to me to seem real. Coincidentally, I
currently work in the Pico Union area of Los Angeles, an epicenter for rioting at that time. Back in 1992, I was an undergrad at UC,
Irvine. A friend’s mother asked that she stay with me until things calmed down. Her local post office had been set on fire, and Target
was being looted. I was on the Crew team, and we had a regatta in Long Beach that week. There is a ridge around that boathouse, and
you drive down a short hill to the parking lot. There were armed police officers stationed all along the ridge guarding us. Of course,
the riots came up in my classes. I remember a young Korean girl sobbing as she told us about how her family business in Los Angeles
had been looted and vandalized. That business supported her family, and she didn’t know what they were going to do with it
destroyed. Twenty-two years later, these experiences are still fresh in my mind.
Event:
Indian Los
Angeles
Riots
April 29 to
May 4, 1992
Citation
Information
Source 1: Online Video
Source 2: Online Web Page
L.A. Riots Anniversary: 8
Infamous Videos
Then & Now: Images from the Same
Spot as the L.A. Riots, 20 Years Later
http://www.thedailybeast.com/
articles/2012/04/27/l-a-riotsanniversary-9-infamousvideos.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/
articles/2012/04/27/l-ariots-anniversary-9infamous-videos.html
http://www.laweekly.com/microsites/lariots/
http://graphics.latimes.com/riots-pages/
McDonald, Patrick. "Then & Now:
Images from the Same Spot as
the L.A. Riots, 20 Years
Later." LAWEEKLY Microsite.
LA Weekly, LP. Web. 23 Oct.
2014.
<http://www.laweekly.com/micr
osites/la-riots/>.
The page commemorates the 20 year
Los Angeles Times 30 Apr. 1992.
Tribune Newspaper. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
<http://graphics.latimes.com/riotspages/>.
This page commemorates the
Source 3: Online Archived
Newspaper
Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1992
The Los Angeles Times has provided
Conveyed
Format
Impact
twentieth anniversary of the
riots through a series of eight
videos, each depicting news
coverage of key events from
the riots.
anniversary of the L.A. Riots by
revisiting some of the areas most
effected by the looting, arson, and
vandalism.
access to their archived front pages from
the period of the Riots and immediately
following, from April 30 to May 10,
1992.
The page centers around photographs
taken by a photographer, Ted Soqui,
both during the riots and twenty years
later. Each set of photos is followed by
a description of what the area was like
then versus now, along with an analysis
of why the changes have or have not
occurred.
The articles, or at least the beginning of
articles that continue on pages not seen,
provide a more detailed insight into the
events of the Riots than the news videos.
There are articles in which individuals,
business owners in particular, express
the impact that the riots had on them.
The impact of the videos is
tremendous, particularly to
someone who remembers
watching the events unfold the
first time.
The format takes the riots full circle,
from burning buildings to newly
constructed or renovated structures. The
impact of this compare and contrast
structure is soothing.
While the photographs are powerful, the
articles themselves have much less of an
impact than the live news coverage from
that period. Print media was unable to
convey the uncertainty and fear
experienced at that time.
Personally, I found the footage
of the Reginald Denny beating
to be the most upsetting,
although others may not feel
the same. This horrifying event
triggered the start of the riots
for the viewing public.
The viewer isn’t left with a horrific
image of destruction and violence, as
was depicted in media coverage at the
time. Seeing evidence of Los Angeles
healing conveys a feeling of healing and
comfort to the reader.