News media and the racialization of protest: an analysis of Black Lives Matter articles

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine coverage of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in seven US-based newspapers to determine whether the protest paradigm, “a pattern of news coverage that expresses disapproval toward protests and dissent,” and other marginalizing techniques are present, and racialized. Design/methodology/approach Relevant articles published during a six-month period of 2014 near the death of Michael Brown were retrieved from the selected outlets, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the St Louis Post-Dispatch. Textual and content analyses were performed. Findings The articles heavily followed the paradigm. An additional characteristic, blame attribution, was also identified. Language of crime, lawlessness, violence, blame for nearby acts of violence, and inflammatory quotes from bystanders and official sources were often present. There was little discussion of key issues associated with the formation of BLM. Research limitations/implications Mainstream outlets rather than social media or alternative outlets were examined. Future research should study coverage of BLM in other outlets. Practical implications Measures to avoid marginalizing protests and racialization of coverage, including increased diversity in the newsroom and monitoring for racialized language are suggested. Social implications Racialization of news and coverage of BLM has widespread negative consequences, such as association of Blacks with criminality that may affect their quality of life. The protest paradigm has the ability to squelch participation in social movements, which have the possibility to bring about needed social change. Originality/value This interdisciplinary paper highlights the important role of mainstream media and news routines in affecting the BLM movement. It uses diversity research to make recommendations for media practitioners to avoid racialization of news.

ARTICLE: #Black Lives Matter? Analyzing the Effects of Police-Caused Black Deaths on Media Coverage and Public Interest in the Movement

“…We caution against this interpretation, given that Black Lives Matter is ultimately a movement in its early stages and its primary focus still seems to be on online organization, which may in turn have an indirect effect on increasing the coverage of incidents of police brutality (Freelon et al, 2018). We and other scholars (Byrd et al, 2017;Cox, 2017;Leopold & Bell, 2017;Mundt, Ross, & Burnett, 2018) have approached Black Lives Matter as a social movement, but the disparate and loosely knit nature of the organization may classify it as a different type of movement altogether, and perhaps one that requires different measures of success. Still, our research suggests that more work needs to be done and that, at the current date, Black lives do not matter enough.…”

“…Further, the fact that the only spike in news coverage of and Internet searches for the movement occurred following a negative event supports much of what we know regarding racialized patterns of news coverage. Regarding the Black Lives Matter movement specifically, Leopold and Bell (2017) have previously shown that much of the mainstream coverage of the movement is negative, and research on the Civil Rights Movement demonstrated that media coverage became more and more negative over time (Bond, 2001). We consider these findings to be supportive of the argument of Van Dijk (2015) that the routinized structure of modern news places an emphasis on stories that are attentiongrabbing, fast to produce, and sensational, and that this process ultimately reproduces systemic racial bias.…”

“…Given historical trends in how the media cover racialized stories, it is possible that some stories did in fact cover Black Lives Matter events but failed to use the movement's name or associated hashtag (and instead made use of terms like "rioters" and "looters"). Although we cannot test this possibility directly, such a result would largely coincide with the work of Leopold and Bell (2017) documenting that when Black Lives Matter is discussed following a death, it is discussed in a negative context. It is also possible that other metrics, like televised news stories, might reveal different trends.…”

“…To date, very little research has examined mainstream or traditional news coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement, nor has the link between police-caused deaths of Black individuals (one of the primary topics discussed by the movement) and coverage of and interest in the movement been examined. Leopold and Bell (2017) provide perhaps the only direct examination of traditional news coverage for Black Lives Matter in their qualitative analysis of news articles following the death of Michael Brown. Like the authors of much of the prior literature, they found that most coverage included language that indicated disapproval of the protests and dissent and included strong elements of blame attribution toward Black victims.…”

“…Lastly, we are unable to describe the manner in which the news media covered Black Lives Matter (either in general or following the Dallas incident). Although Leopold and Bell (2017) have demonstrated that media coverage of Black Lives Matter is generally negative, important questions still remain regarding whether different types of newspapers cover the movement differently and to what extent the Dallas incident shifted how coverage occurred. This latter question is especially important as historically, a shift in media focus on protesters and their legitimate demands to a focus on "violent looters" and "kooks" has been the point at which the social movement's cause ceases to be a story (Bond, 2001).…”