A Knight in Sheep’s Clothing: Media Framing of the Alt-Right Can Alter the Image of Racist Groups

Abstract

The Alt-Right increased its national profile during the 2016 presidential election based on its support of Donald Trump. This research becomes more salient with the media continuing to face similar challenges in framing far-right groups. The Alt-Right, like other Far Right groups worldwide, has moderated their framing to hide racist ideology. Therefore, the challenge of this article is to learn if the media allow newer far-right conservative groups to self-frame even against the advice from the Associated Press. This study uses qualitative framing analysis through grounded theory to review the coverage of the Alt-Right as a manner of examining if the group was successful in advancing its desired frames into mainstream media coverage. The results of this study suggest overall the Alt-Right was successful in reducing a direct discussion about the racist beliefs of the group within press coverage. This study continues in the tradition of framing studies of the past yet moves the genre forward as journalists negotiate increasing polarised and fragmented political communication.

White Americans’ Evaluations of the Alt-Right

“…However, we define it as a white nationalist movement that mixes populism with white supremacy. This is consistent both with standard journalistic definitions of the movement (Speakman, 2021), the long ideological history of far-right movements in the United States (Hartzell, 2018), and how ordinary citizens think about alt-right relative to conservatism (Cluverius et al, 2020).…”

Evaluation of Public Policy and Crisis Leadership of Regional Heads at the Beginning of the Spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia in Kompas.com News

“…The media uses framing that is known to the public so that it is easy to convey information. Media framing is very important because the audience does not have direct experience with the events or organizations that are told and they depend on the media to keep abreast of developments in information and use it as a reference in making rational decisions (Speakman, 2021).…”

Abstract: Digital activism and participation: affect, feelings and politics

“…En defi nition på alt-right, som er brugt gennemgående i forskning på faenomenet de seneste år (Boehme & Scott, 2020;Forscher & Kteily, 2020;Gallaher, 2021;Ganesh, 2020;Lorenzo-Dus & Nouri, 2020) står i Southern Poverty Law Centers artikel om faenomenet: "Alt-Right is a set of far-right ideologies, groups, and individuals whose core belief is that 'white identity' is under attack by multicultural forces using political correctness and social justice to undermine white people and their civilization" (Southern Poverty Law Center, n.d.). Udover det grundlaeggende fokus på hvid suveraenitet, defi neret som troen på, at hvide mennesker udgør en overlegen race og derfor bør dominere samfundet, er alt-right også i mindre udtalt grad forstået som en ideologi, der forbinder højreekstremisme med diskriminerende holdninger vedrørende køn og seksuel orientering (Kelly, 2017;Speakman, 2021). I tråd med disse overbevisninger er det blevet påvist at alt-rightgrupper modererer racistisk og højreekstremistisk indhold, som dermed lettere kan indgå i en større off entlig nyhedsdiskurs (Speakman, 2021).…”

“…Udover det grundlaeggende fokus på hvid suveraenitet, defi neret som troen på, at hvide mennesker udgør en overlegen race og derfor bør dominere samfundet, er alt-right også i mindre udtalt grad forstået som en ideologi, der forbinder højreekstremisme med diskriminerende holdninger vedrørende køn og seksuel orientering (Kelly, 2017;Speakman, 2021). I tråd med disse overbevisninger er det blevet påvist at alt-rightgrupper modererer racistisk og højreekstremistisk indhold, som dermed lettere kan indgå i en større off entlig nyhedsdiskurs (Speakman, 2021). I tillaeg til defi nitionen af alt-rights hvidheds-diskurs og diskriminerende holdninger angående race, køn og seksuel orientering, er faenomenet blevet tilskrevet en "anti-establishment" og anti-globalistisk holdning (Bokhari & Yiannopoulos, 2016;Daniszewski, 2016).…”