There was a lot of emotion after the criminal trial against George Zimmerman concluded. On TV, radio, social media and from our own personal connections, people shared what they thought of the acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

In Milwaukee, a group of people met at the Federal Courthouse steps. Sherwin Hughes, the talk show host on "The Forum" on WNOV-AM 860 said there were some good takeaways from the event.

"The best takeaway was the issue of race in this case, jury, and verdict prompted a swift response from the African-American community in America and a very personal narrative from the President," Hughes said. "Not even Act 10 protests and a recall of Scott Walker did that."

If you catch his weekday morning show from 9 to 11 a.m. each day, you get a feel for local observation and reaction to issues that are on the city, state and national stage. The Zimmerman trial was in the news cycle for weeks, and "The Forum" was among thousands of radio and TV programs that covered what was happening. For Hughes, that meant trying to shape the conversation based on the reaction of the not guilty verdict.

"Race now has a legitimate place in our politics," Hughes said.

I think when events happen, and how our community is affected, is one of the purest reasons that there needs to be local media to be the mirror … to reflect and report on what has happened. But outside the objective newsroom, other sides of mass media can cover the angles, opinions and emotions that are part and parcel to what we understand as the human condition.

I asked Hughes what the pros and cons were from his perspective of the rally that took place on Saturday.

"Pros: peaceful, no arrests. Incredibly diverse. Amazingly well attended despite Garfield Days, The UNCF Run/Walk and Festa Italiana. Great speakers. Cons: we only had 72 hours to put it together.

From a radio perspective, and what an event like this brings to his show, Hughes said that he had the conversation shaped in the days leading up to Saturday. Now, the talk continues.

"Now, the conversation has been reshaped and speaks to Zimmerman sympathizers in a way in which they never imaged. I think they believed the issue was done after the verdict, when in fact, the issue was reinvigorated after the verdict," he said.

On the other side of the political talk show spectrum – the conservative talk shows on WISN-AM 1130 and WTMJ-AM 620 – the Zimmerman trial was also discussed and mentioned. Through the news service reports, details of the trial, and comments from both sides of the prosecution and defense were weighed.

On cable TV, ratings were spiked throughout the trial. CNN was in essence in competition with itself at one point, having one program on its news channel and another in the same time slot on sister station HLN.

"It’s easy, it’s summer, and it’s lazy – a simple way to be able to cover the same story over and over for two or three weeks," said Eric Boehlert with Media Matters.

"Each year, they seem to pick three or four of these trials and almost randomly devote way too much time to them. Now they’ve decided to do it with the Zimmerman trial, which at its core is a much more serious and important event – the societal and legal implications are much more important and sober than some of the other celebrity trials that they’ve embraced."