Browsing by Subject "Protest coverage"

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Black, white, and blue : media and audience frames from visual news coverage of police use of force and unrest
(2017-08) Kilgo, Danielle Kathleen; Coleman, Renita; Bentley-Edwards, Keisha; Bock, Mary; Johnson, Thomas; Jensen, Robert
This study advances visual framing theory by uncovering the relationship between media and audience frames. This work uses recent media coverage of police brutality and social unrest to understand how audiences interpreted visual messages and frames, highlighting the differences in these interpretations for Black and White audiences. A secondary content analysis explores how digital news outlets portrayed the issue visually. In addition, this dissertation examines the role social media audiences play in redistributing media content in social media venues through sharing features. These research objectives were tackled using a two-part, mixed-methods approach. The first study utilized think-aloud interviews with Black and White participants to examine how audiences understood visual information. Results show media frames help organize information for audiences, while interpretations and evaluations of visual messages were less uniform. White and Black participants treated visualizations of police with increased skepticism. Participants also noted small details that indicate criminality for Blacks. Visuals also play a critical role in interrogating structure of the protest paradigm. Yet, evaluations of images within this genre of news varied considerably between Black and White participants. For White participants, rioting and chaos are primarily negative, while Black participants position their evaluations in more sympathetic, understanding terms. Non-violent visualizations also lead to various assessments. Black participants were overly-cautious of White thinking, acknowledging and opposing perceived negativity as a way of challenging the discourse they expect to encounter. These interpretations are evidence of dual-consciousness and confirm the consistency of a contest-and-oppose approach to evaluations. Whites are less likely to battle stereotypes or to oppose them through empathetic responses than Blacks. The second study includes a content analysis of digital news coverage shared on social media. Overall results for protest images were more likely emphasize the written demands of protesters and non-violent action of protestors than violence or sensational behavior. Identifying photos are also more balanced than expected. Regarding shareworthiness, visual messages did not affect social media audiences’ sharing patterns, though visuals that included human emotion were more likely to be shared on Facebook and Twitter.
From mass to elite protests : how journalists covered the 2013 and 2015 demonstrations in Brazil
(2016-08) Reis Mourão, Rachel; Reese, Stephen D.; Alves, Rosental; Straubhaar, Joseph; Johnson, Thomas; Lawrence, Regina
This dissertation uses a media sociology approach to untangle how multiple influences shaped journalistic coverage of two waves of protests in Brazil. In 2013, small demonstrations against bus fares evolved into a series of large protests expressing generalized dissatisfaction with conditions in the country. Following the reelection of center-leftist Dilma Rousseff, another wave of protests returned in 2015, this time with a clear agenda: the removal of the President. Communication research has long examined the “protest paradigm,” a pattern of news coverage that delegitimizes social movements. The Brazilian context provided a chance to assess the extent to which the paradigm holds when protests take on an elite-driven narrative contesting a government in crisis. This project uses a quantitatively-driven mixed methods approach to provide a holistic understanding of how journalists went about covering the demonstrations. First, content analysis presents an overview of how coverage evolved over time. Then, a survey of journalists reveals their newsgathering routines and political attitudes. Finally, 23 journalists were selected for a matched data analysis linking survey data to the content they produced. Results reveal that when grievances evolved into coherent anti-government demands, official sources from opposition parties served to legitimize the movement, even when journalists themselves viewed protestors with skepticism. In fact, findings suggest that the more journalists supported demonstrations, the less favorably they covered them. This holds true even when controlling for their outlet’s editorial line, as measured by journalists’ own perception of their employers. Through in-depth interviews, journalists described how they continually self-assessed and corrected for bias, citing professional norms as the basis for critical coverage of protests they personally supported. This study departs from an understanding of protest coverage as paradigmatic towards a more complex view of the relationship between protestors and the press. The analysis helps elucidate the conditions under which the protest paradigm fails and how favorable coverage can occur. The experience of Brazil shows that when an elite opposition supports protests, journalistic norms and routines validate demonstrations, regardless of journalists’ own attitudes.