Protests, Media Coverage, and a Hierarchy of Social Struggle

Abstract

News coverage is fundamental to a protest’s viability, but research suggests media negatively portray protests and protesters that challenge the status quo (a pattern known as the protest paradigm). This study questions the validity of those claims within the context of digital newspaper coverage, interrogating how topic and region shape coverage. Using a content analysis of coverage from sixteen newspapers in various U.S. market types and regions, this research examines framing and sourcing features in articles about protests. Results suggest media coverage of protests centered on racial issues (discrimination of Indigenous people and anti-Black racism) follows more of a delegitimizing pattern than stories about protests related to immigrants’ rights, health, and environment. A model to understand news coverage of protest based on a hierarchy of social struggle is proposed.

When is the “Racist” Designation Truly Applicable? News Media’s Contribution to the Debatability of Racism

“…With journalism’s long history of maintaining the status quo when it comes to racial inequality (e.g., Hall 1978; Herman and Chomsky 1994; Kilgo and Harlow 2019), this study explored how news organizations contribute to maintaining the debatability of racism (and thereby the stifling of racial progress). When covering Trump and politicians, journalists tended to dial up subjectivity cues to avoid accountability; direct mentions of racism were most likely to appear in historical contexts; and discourse about racism’s source—white privilege and white supremacy—infrequently made headlines.…”

“…Hall (1978) theorized that there are structural influences in the media that contribute to the maintenance of racism in society. Misrepresentation of racial minorities tends to be where journalism’s struggle with reporting race is most apparent (e.g., Dixon and Azocar 2007; Kilgo and Harlow 2019; Larson 2006). However, less scholarship has specifically centered the representation patterns of news about racism.…”

Swedish Government and Country Image during the International Media Coverage of the Coronavirus Pandemic Strategy: From Bold to Pariah

“…It is more usual for hegemony and indexing theory to be applied to cases where the government-media power relations are investigated and analyzed within one country, i.e., a national government and national media (Scollon 2003;Entman 2004;Lemon 2014;Andersen 2017;Allen and Blinder 2018;Kilgo and Harlow 2019;Mulherin and Isakhan 2019). This exploratory study seeks to develop new ground by applying government-media relations that involve a foreign government with media outlets in another country.…”

“…An influence factor to be considered is the area of frame building that involves the framing of media input, which is made up of materials that political actors communicate to newsrooms in order to facilitate their work whilst simultaneously attempting to influence news production (Rodelo and Muniz 2019). There are two broad approaches to understanding the government-media nexus within foreign policy, hegemony (Scollon 2003;Lemon 2014;Kilgo and Harlow 2019), and indexing (Andersen 2017;Allen and Blinder 2018;Mulherin and Isakhan 2019). Both of these theoretical approaches see the media as being too subservient to the government.…”

Bounded or Boundless: A Case Study of Foreign Correspondents’ Use of Twitter During the 2019 Hong Kong Protests

“…Studies on protest paradigm point out that mainstream media coverage has often disparaged protesters and ridiculed their claims, which led the public to be critical of protesters and hesitant to identify with them (Chan & Lee, 1984;Hertog & McLeod, 1995;Lee, 2014). Recent research has identified factors, such as ideology of media outlets, political culture, and location of the newspaper, that can predict the use of protest paradigm in reporting protests (Kilgo & Harlow, 2019;Shahin et al, 2016). Unlike domestic media, foreign media outlets may offer a more sympathetic view of protesters and be less likely to apply the protest paradigm (Harlow et al, 2017).…”