Geography

profileWarre269
Newsmediaandtheracializationofprotest-ananalysisofBlackLivesMatter-3.pdf

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal News media and the racialization of protest: an analysis of Black Lives Matter articles Joy Leopold, Myrtle P. Bell,

Article information: To cite this document: Joy Leopold, Myrtle P. Bell, (2017) "News media and the racialization of protest: an analysis of Black Lives Matter articles", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, Vol. 36 Issue: 8, pp.720-735, https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-01-2017-0010 Permanent link to this document: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-01-2017-0010

Downloaded on: 13 April 2018, At: 12:49 (PT) References: this document contains references to 58 other documents. To copy this document: [email protected] The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 2128 times since 2017*

Users who downloaded this article also downloaded: (2017),"Broadening the conversation: why Black Lives Matter", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, Vol. 36 Iss 8 pp. 698-706 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/ EDI-09-2017-0198">https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-09-2017-0198</a> (2017),"Do black lives really matter in the workplace? Restorative justice as a means to reclaim humanity", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, Vol. 36 Iss 8 pp. 707-719 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-07-2017-0149">https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-07-2017-0149</a>

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by All users group

For Authors If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.

About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.

Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

News media and the racialization of protest: an analysis of Black

Lives Matter articles Joy Leopold

Department of Communication, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA, and Myrtle P. Bell

Department of Management, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USA

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. Keywords Media, African Americans, Black Lives Matter, Blame attribution, Protest paradigm Paper type Research paper

The hashtag “#Black Lives Matter” and the social movement that followed developed as a response to the homicide of 17-year old Trayvon Martin, who was pursued and ultimately killed by a volunteer neighborhood watchman as he walked home in his neighborhood after buying candy at a nearby store. Trayvon’s killer was acquitted while Trayvon’s character was impugned and he was assigned blame for his own death. Rather than in response to Trayvon’s death or to any one judicial failure, however, Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a call to action and response to the virulent, seemingly intractable anti-black racism that permeates US society (Cullors et al., 2017).

Social movements are collective challenges to the status quo – efforts to change the existing power structure through sustained and collective actions with elites, adversaries, and authorities (Beckwith, 2007; McCarthy and Zald, 1977). Historically, social movements have depended, in part, on the mass media for their success, because it is through forms of mass media that social movements can communicate their message beyond their immediate

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal Vol. 36 No. 8, 2017 pp. 720-735 © Emerald Publishing Limited 2040-7149 DOI 10.1108/EDI-01-2017-0010

Received 17 January 2017 Revised 8 July 2017 20 August 2017 Accepted 7 September 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

720

EDI 36,8

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

audience, gain supporters, and influence the political and social agenda (Amenta et al., 2017; Oliver and Myers, 1999; Smith et al., 2001). Thus, organizers and members of a social movement often develop strategies, including boycotts, rallies, or protests to attract the attention of the news media.

While movement organizers might hope that media coverage of their protest will give them the opportunity to share their messages on a larger scale, they cannot always count on the resulting media coverage to represent protest events in ways that are consistent with the intent and aims of the social movement (McLeod, 2007; Smith, et al., 2001; Weiner, 2010). This seems especially likely when considering social movements with Black issues at the center. In fact, in a society permeated by anti-black racism, even regular news about blacks is likely to contain inaccurate and damaging representation (see van Dijk, 2015). Journalists and editors, embedded in an entrenched discrimination system (Reskin, 2012), can act as “agents of racialization,” defining social reality, rather than solely reflecting it (Drew, 2011, p. 355). The role of the media as actors in and contributors to negative perceptions about BLM bears investigation.

Scholarly research on the news coverage of other protesting groups has often been conducted using what is known as the protest paradigm as a guide. The protest paradigm provides an explanation for the often negative portrayals of protesting groups in the media, discusses the effects of such coverage, and offers a glimpse into practices that can be adopted by media organizations to reduce the negative effects of the paradigm on protests (Boyle et al., 2004, 2012; McLeod, 1995, 2007; McLeod and Detenber, 1999). Many scholars have added to the paradigm by using framing and other theories to supplement their analyses. Our work will do the same while providing an in-depth exploration into online newspaper coverage of the BLM movement.

The protest paradigm The protest paradigm is viewed “as a pattern of news coverage that expresses disapproval toward protests and dissent” (Lee, 2014, p. 2727). The five characteristics of the paradigm, which are outlined below, have been used as a guide for researchers to draw conclusions about and recognize negative journalistic patterns in protest coverage.

News frames In general, frames serve to highlight certain aspects of an issue and make them more salient in the minds of viewers. A frame will set the tone of an entire article, and frames, while not inherently negative, can offer only an incomplete version of an event or issue (Entman, 1994). Many times a frame will define the protest in a way that actually has nothing to do with the motivation for the protest. Common frames found in protest coverage include: riot frames, which overemphasize any lawlessness, danger, destruction, and disorder occurring because of the protests; crime story frames, which describe protest events in terms of specific criminal acts committed by those part of the protesting group; and carnival frames, which minimize the social issue being protested in order to highlight the aspects of protest that are more theatrical, for example, the waving of flags, beating of drums, or wearing of coordinated outfits (Hertog and McLeod, 1995; Veneti et al., 2016). The public nuisance frame tends to emphasize downsides that a city or community faces at the hands of a protest that are not dangerous or criminal, like long lines of traffic or the imposition of a curfew (Di Cicco, 2010).

Reliance on official sources and official definitions While journalists are often trained to contact governmental agencies or those with advanced training to lend credibility to stories, the use of quotes and statements from those in

721

Black Lives Matter articles

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

positions of power are often counterproductive to protest goals because protests are generally in opposition to the dominant power structures (Boyle et al., 2004; McLeod, 2007). When journalists allow those in power to define protests in and on their terms, the protestors are characterized by their deviance from societal norms rather than by their struggle for representation, equality, or change.

Invocation of public opinion Many times journalists will use the statements of bystanders to make generalizations about how members of the general public (those not protesting) are reacting to the social issue and the protest. Often, these bystanders are interviewed and given a voice in the story simply because they happen to be in the area in which a protest is occurring. As a result, they generally have a limited understanding of the social movement or the social issue on which the movement is focused, so much of their commentary is negative or superficial. This practice is another way of allowing those on the outside of the protest to define the protest (McLeod, 2007; McLeod and Hertog, 1992).

Delegitimization When those covering the protests fail to adequately explain the reasons behind the protests and the goals or objectives of the protesters, protests can become defined solely by the actions of the protesters, rather than the social issue that spurred the protests. Without information about why the protesters are staging a protest, the social issue behind their actions, and their proposed changes or solution to the problem, audience members reading the news (or viewing broadcasts) can judge the protests as pointless.

Demonization Traditional journalistic norms often result in episodic coverage, which is essentially listing actions in chronological or other order, without grounding the actions in any contextual information. This again causes protests to be characterized in terms of particular actions of the protesters. Extensive and episodic coverage of any destruction wrought by protesters, listing of arrests, or highlighting altercations with police are common forms of demonization. Photographs or video footage of protesters causing damage to property or being arrested can cause audiences to focus on those events and not the reason for the protest (McLeod, 1995, 2007).

These tenets outline some of the widely recognized problems with traditional news coverage of protests. Audiences exposed to reporting that follows the protest paradigm are often appalled by the acts of social deviance (like burning buildings, blocking traffic, and clashing with police), but fail to understand the issue in terms of the social inequities that those protesting are facing or protesting against (Boyle et al., 2004, 2012; McLeod, 1995, 2007; McLeod and Detenber, 1999; McLeod and Hertog, 1992). As a result of reporting that fails to take into account the issues behind the protests, audiences often report negative feelings toward the protesters, a lack of awareness about and sympathy for the social issue that prompts the protest, and more negative feelings about protests in general (Boyle et al., 2012; McLeod, 1995, 2007). The presentation of protesters as social deviants can thus serve to inhibit changes to the status quo and to inhibit development of a society in which those with grievances are inspired to challenge the dominant power structure.

Previous research Researchers studying the news coverage of protests have often found that protest coverage displays varying levels of the paradigm characteristics – with some characteristics showing up in a majority of the articles, and other characteristics being virtually or completely absent

722

EDI 36,8

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

from the coverage. The generally accepted explanation for adherence to and existence of the paradigm is the routinized creation of news that has emerged as a necessary way to streamline news production. Traditional news routines often lead to episodic, one-dimensional coverage of events, and articles and news segments focusing on social movements tend to follow this routine (Gamson and Wolfsfeld, 1993). Journalists are trained to judge an event’s newsworthiness by the impact and uniqueness of the event (Eliasoph, 1988) and to use official sources to establish credibility (McLeod, 2007; Schudson, 1989). They often tread carefully when constructing news packages or stories, knowing that stepping too far away from the established routines can negatively impact their careers (Eliasoph, 1988). Traditional ideas of what constitutes “newsworthiness” also suggest social movements that are centrally located, involve famous or public figures, or consistently provide images and definitions that are appealing to the general public are more likely to receive news coverage (McCarthy et al., 1996; Smith et al., 2001). As such, it is not uncommon for a protest to receive coverage that contains, for example, positive framing, but is delegitimizing due to a failure to adequately describe the motivations for protest.

Di Cicco (2010) found that over the past few decades, news coverage of protests and protesting groups has become increasingly more negative, increasing specifically in reports that protests are bothersome, ineffective, and unpatriotic. His analysis of 40 years of protest coverage found that in news reports published in five major newspapers in the USA between 1967 and 2004, language characterizing protests in critical ways rose nearly 20 percent (Di Cicco, 2010). Language describing protests in ways that implied the protests were bothersome (e.g. highlighting an increase in traffic as a consequence of the protest) nearly quadrupled between 1967 and 1999.

Adherence to just one or two of the tenets can result in coverage that negatively portrays the protest, obscures the social issues spurring the protests, and demonizes those participating in the protests. Historically, policymakers and others have recommended the media step outside of normal news routines when covering protesting groups, especially those with issues related to race at their center (Hrach, 2016).

The current research In this paper, using the protest paradigm as our guide, we investigate media portrayal of BLM in news articles from seven major mainstream media outlets. BLM is a relatively new social movement on which academic study is still rapidly increasing. It is important that scholars of media continue to objectively analyze trends and patterns that occur in the coverage of new and emerging social movements. The variations in coverage that are revealed through analyses can guide other inquiry, but the necessary starting point is a simple, specialized, and informative dive into the mainstream media’s treatment of the social movement.

As such, we believe it is crucial to first understand how the coverage of the BLM movement adheres to or deviates from traditional coverage of protesting groups. In addition, we sought to understand whether the coverage of BLM exhibited particularly racialized elements and techniques. Thus, we formulated the following research questions:

RQ1. Will media coverage of the BLM movement and protests follow the protest paradigm?

RQ2. Will media coverage of protests associated with the BLM movement contain other negative framing elements and marginalization techniques?

Methods and data In an effort to operationalize some of the more abstract aspects of the protest paradigm (e.g. demonization and delegitimization), we turned to other scholarly research to identify variables commonly used to denote presence of the paradigm characteristics. Researchers have

723

Black Lives Matter articles

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

operationalized demonization by examining overall tone (positive, negative or neutral) of the news articles or by identifying lengthy descriptions of violent confrontations between the protesters and police regulating the protests (Dardis, 2006; Veneti et al., 2016). Demonization can also occur when articles identify the illegal character of the protest – including mentions of arrests for disruption of the peace or disorderly conduct, for example, or outlining other specific actions that are technically illegal but generally do not garner public outrage, like conducting a parade without a permit or failure to use established routes (McLeod and Hertog, 1999). Delegitimization has been operationalized by identifying journalists’ use of descriptions of the appearance or “theatrical” actions of protesters such as chanting, waving flags, or linking arms (Dardis, 2006; McLeod and Hertog, 1999). Still others have used descriptions of the social and economic disruptions caused by the protests to operationalize the delegitimization of protests (Di Cicco, 2010; Veneti et al., 2016)

Textual and content analyses are two of the most popular ways researchers have studied the paradigm. These forms of research can complement each other in the quest for understanding the significance of written texts. Bonnie Brennen (2012) writes, “when we do textual analyses, we evaluate the many meanings found in texts and we try to understand how written, visual, and spoken language helps us to understand our social realities” (p. 193). More than just a recounting of sentences or words, a textual analysis is an examination of how these words reflect and reveal aspects of culture and society. As such, we conducted the textual analysis by taking into consideration elements such as the political climate during when the articles were published, the broader implications of portraying certain groups (e.g. blacks, or the police) in certain ways, and the societal structure in which protest actions were taking place. The textual analysis was designed to identify the presence and significance of any paradigm characteristics and reveal (if any) other elements that further contribute to the marginalization of the BLM protests and protesters.

After the textual analysis, we analyzed the remainder of the data using the quantitative content analysis in order to provide numerical representation of the prevalence of each of the variables. While the textual analysis helps us to understand the impact of the use of specific words, phrases, and other literary devices in the coverage, the content analysis provides information about how much of the coverage actually contains elements that contribute to that impact.

We conducted our research using articles published online during a six-month window in 2014. Our sample was drawn from The New York Post, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Chicago Tribune and The St Louis Post-Dispatch beginning one month before the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year old resident of Ferguson, Missouri, who was killed on August 9, 2014 during an incident with a white policeman. After a grand jury failed to indict the officer on any charges, a series of protests sprang up in Ferguson and surrounding areas. Although the BLM movement began earlier, Brown’s death is viewed as an important point in stimulating BLM protests. This six-month period was designed to give a glimpse of the BLM news coverage before and after a major event that prompted protests.

Six of the newspapers are the top six most widely read daily newspapers in the USA, with a combined reach of several million online viewers each day. For example, USA Today boasts more than 110 million unique monthly visitors, while the New York Times, the LA Times, and the NY Post each report more than 35 million unique visitors each month (Adam and MacMillan, 2014; Greenberg, 2015; Feuerherd et al., 2014; LA Times, 2016; USA Today, 2016). The St Louis Post-Dispatch, the largest paper in the Ferguson area, was the first major newspaper to report on the deadly confrontation and community reaction to it (Araiza et al., 2016).

We retrieved articles that mentioned the phrase “Black Lives Matter” using the ProQuest Academic database. Retrieved articles were first screened for relevance to the BLM movement and protests related to the movement. Thus, articles that only mentioned the movement in

724

EDI 36,8

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

passing as part of an article about something else were eliminated, as were letters to the editor. Articles related to the movement or protests were defined as those which covered events in which individuals advocated for or against a change of institutional or social practices, in a publicly visible setting, and outside the channels provided by institutional politics (Di Cicco, 2010, p. 139). These events included such things as rallies, marches, vigils, die-ins, and other publicly visible actions. Also included in our sample were articles that mentioned signs reading “Black Lives Matter” or mentioned protestors chanting or shouting “Black Lives Matter.”

The final sample included 79 articles. Using a random number generator, we selected 15 articles for the textual analysis.

Results Textual analysis As mentioned, our textual analysis was designed in part to identify any other elements in the newspaper coverage that might contribute to the marginalization and demonization of BLM protesters that are not identified within the protest paradigm or in the other scholarly work that has used the protest paradigm as a framework. The 15 articles analyzed for the textual analysis did in fact heavily follow the protest paradigm, and also revealed language and coverage patterns that further negatively framed the BLM protests.

News frames. In terms of direct adherence to the protest paradigm, a majority of the articles analyzed used a riot frame, describing in detail any destruction caused by or occurring during the protests and using vivid descriptions to paint a scene of disorder and danger. For example, one article from the LA Times was titled, “TURMOIL IN FERGUSON; Ferguson’s anger builds and spreads; Many residents appear to be shocked by the destruction. Protests in other cities are more peaceful.” The article then begins with a striking lead that sets the tone for the entire article: “Protests unfolded in major cities across the nation Tuesday night as more than 2,000 National Guard troops and hundreds of police officers converged in the St Louis area to guard against the vandalism, arson, and looting that erupted in suburban Ferguson a night earlier” (Queally and Muskal, 2014). The article continues, describing a scene of absolute chaos: “Police fired tear gas, and protesters started choking, screaming, crying, and trying to find their friends”; “St Louis County police arrived in armored vehicles and ordered people to the sidewalk”; “violence […] led to at least 14 injuries and 61 arrests.” The same article featured a particularly inflammatory quote from Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, who characterized the protesters as dangerous, destructive thieves: “Criminals intent on lawlessness and destruction terrorized this community, burning buildings, firing guns, vandalizing storefronts and looting family businesses, many for the second time.” An NY Post article reporting on protests at the Rockefeller Center’s December tree lighting ceremony also used a riot frame, referring to protestors as “hundreds of frustrated anarchists,” “the angry throng,” and “agitators” (Feuerherd et al., 2014).

Use of official sources. In addition to the quote from Governor Nixon just discussed, that same article featured a quote from Ferguson Mayor James Knowles imploring the governor to deploy the National Guard to “protect our people.” Such language pits the protesters directly against the residents of Ferguson, failing to acknowledge that many of the protesters were in fact residents of Ferguson themselves. Other articles featured quotes from college professors and lawyers who were not participating in the protests but had been contacted specifically to give their opinions on the protests.

Invocation of public opinion. Many articles featured bystander quotes to emphasize the feelings of disdain, contempt, and disapproval evoked by the protests: “Ferguson resident Jill Hatcher said she used to drive by and honk her car horn in support. ‘Now I speed by with my windows up and my doors locked,’ she said.” The article later stated that Hatcher was afraid of the protesters because they often marched in the street late at night, chanting and

725

Black Lives Matter articles

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

beating on drums. The article, published in the St Louis Post-Dispatch, was titled, “Weariness of Ferguson protests grows,” and was entirely dedicated to describing the ways in which the residents of the city who were not involved in the protests were disadvantaged and inconvenienced by the dedication of the protesters, who had continued to meet and participate in marches for more than two months. While the article did feature some quotes from those participating in the protests, the article did not go into details about the reasons for the protest, what the protesters hoped to accomplish, or any outcomes of the protests aside from disrupting the usual order of the city. Instead, the article claimed, “Business really took a dive when the farmers market down the street shut for the season earlier than usual because of the protests” (Addo, 2014).

Delegitimization. Many articles featured extensive coverage of the theatrical actions of protesters without grounding the information by explaining the reasons for the protest. For example, one article focused extensively on “die-ins” staged by protesters. “The group carried a dozen black cardboard coffins, bearing the names of alleged victims of police violence, and staged a ‘die-in’ outside the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn.” Notably, this particular article was written about protests that occurred after the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner, a man whose choking death at the hands of police was later ruled a homicide. In spite of these facts, the writers used the phrase “alleged victims of police violence” to describe the victims associated with the protest (Adam and MacMillan, 2014).

Demonization. Many of the articles also demonized the protesters by focusing on the illegal nature of the protests, mentioning the tendency of the protesters to block roadways (Queally and Muskal, 2014), recounting the numbers of protesters arrested for minor offenses such as disorderly conduct and failure to disassemble (Susman, 2014), or pointing out attempts to disrupt holiday events such as Black Friday shopping, symphony performances, or tree- lighting ceremonies (Adam and MacMillan, 2014; Feuerherd et al., 2014). One article claimed the protesters had taken to social media to call for violence in New York City. The article’s title read, in part, “Burn that *&% tree!” and the article contained lengthy descriptions of a riot-like scene in which protesters blocked traffic and chanted obscenities for more than an hour. The article ended with a series of hand-selected posts from social media, one of which read, in full, “@BilldeBlasio appearance @ #NY tree lighting cancelled due 2 uproar over state execution of #EricGarner Hope someone burns that f-king tree,” (Feuerherd et al., 2014).

Blame attribution. Our textual analysis revealed the presence of another characteristic that we have termed blame attribution. This characteristic manifests as the attribution of acts of violence or crime to the protests or to protesters even when there is no evidence that the protesters committed the acts. Our findings showed a significant amount of blame attribution throughout the coverage. For example, a St Louis Post-Dispatch article reported “a man who ran from a Ferguson officer then ambushed him and shot him in the arm” (Byers and Patrick, 2014). The article does not make it clear if this man was involved in the protests in any way. Another article mentioned that the fire department in Ferguson had responded to a small fire outside of a historic landmark in the city. The article stated, “Law enforcement reported that someone had doused the outside of the building with gasoline” (Addo, 2014). Again, this act of violence is mentioned in an article about the protests, but there is no indication that this act of violence was committed by a protester or as part of any of the protests.

We next conducted the content analysis using a codebook developed from the textual analysis and the operationalization of paradigm characteristics outlined earlier. The codebook included the following elements: appearance and performance, blame attribution, episodic reporting of events, identification of key issues, illegal character of protest, overall tone, quotes from bystanders, quotes from protesters, social and economic disruption, use of official sources, and violent confrontations.

726

EDI 36,8

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

Content analysis As shown in Table I, the remaining 64 articles used for the content analysis also consistently reflected elements of the protest paradigm and blame attribution. The riot frame, emphasizing lawlessness, danger, destruction and disorder because of the protests appeared in 22 percent of cases. Relatedly, demonization was apparent via violent confrontations (21 percent) and emphasis on the illegal character of the protests (42 percent). The articles relied heavily on use of official sources (46 percent), and consistently made note of social and economic disruption (54 percent) by describing long lines of traffic, pointing out that protesters had interrupted holiday shopping, and using quotes from store owners who had seen declines shoppers and total sales. Nearly 20 percent of the articles used some form of blame attribution, describing acts of violence or destruction that were not clearly perpetrated by anyone involved in the protests. Articles also relied heavily on the appearance and performance of the protesters (56 percent) and just over 40 percent of articles used episodic reporting techniques, which is associated with both demonization and delegitimization. Although many protests were indeed planned after grand juries failed to indict officers accused of police brutality, approximately 65 percent of the articles analyzed pointed to the failures to indict as the sole reason for the protests. Put differently, just about one-third (35 percent) of the articles went beyond the lack of indictments to outline or analyze the key issues of predatory policing, police brutality, unfair sentencing policies and discriminatory practices within police departments that helped spur the BLM movement and resulting protests. Lastly, about 32 percent of the articles included quotes from bystanders, and while nearly two-thirds of articles used some form of quotes from protesters, just 23 percent of the quotes from protesters contained in depth information about the motivations, desires, or aims of the protests or protestors.

Discussion The protest paradigm is a widely used guide for identifying negative aspects of protest coverage. Along with framing theories, the protest paradigm provides a template for examining characteristics that are often found in protest coverage. This is an important tool, and it is crucial in understanding BLM’s treatment by the mainstream news media. The analysis of the implications of these paradigm characteristics is important so that scholars and practitioners of journalism and media can better understand the impact of their work. Purposeful, deliberate efforts of those creating content for mass consumption are required for them to be aware of the implications of coverage that unintentionally demonizes or delegitimizes an effort for social change.

Based on our findings, the protest paradigm and other marginalization tactics are quite prevalent in the coverage of the BLM movement and associated protests. Research has proposed that coverage of movements that make fundamental criticisms of the social system, as BLM does, will more closely conform to the protest paradigm (McLeod and Hertog, 1999). Consistent with this, newspaper coverage of BLM ran the gamut of delegitimization, marginalization, and demonization – relying heavily on riot frames, official sources, and bystander input to characterize the protests as disruptive, dangerous, and a disservice to the normal order of the cities in which they occurred. More than half of the articles analyzed featured vivid descriptions of theatrical aspects of the protests, spending valuable article space describing clothing and accessory choices, “die-ins,” and mentioning shouting and chanting. The die-ins staged by protesters were symbolic in that they served as a visual reminder of the death of Michael Brown, whose body lay in the street for more than four hours after he was shot and killed by a police officer. The dedication of several sentences in a news story to the description of the die-ins, however, without accompanying the descriptions with an analysis of the issues only serves to delegitimize the protests by highlighting superficial aspects of the protests.

727

Black Lives Matter articles

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

The protest paradigma

and additional characteristicsc Operationalization

Percent present Example

News framesa Riot 22 WSJ. Police, armed with 5.56 mm assault-style rifles and shotguns loaded with nonlethal rounds faced off with protestors, staring at them through gas masks. Several buildings nearby had windows shattered including the front door to the fire department. A Little Caesars restaurant, a self-storage facility and local meat market were looted and burned as a chaotic scene broke out along a main commercial strip…roving groups focused on looting and vandalizing businesses (November 26, 2014)

Public nuisance 9 NYT. A mass of demonstrators chanting “Black lives matter” converged in the Mall of America rotunda on Saturday as part of a protest against police brutality that caused at least part of the mall to shut down on a busy day for holiday shopping (December 14, 2014)

Carnival 3 St Louis Post-Dispatch. Hip-hop artists national and local converged on small midtown concert club Fubar on Sunday afternoon in the name of Hip Hop 4 Justice … Bo Dean’s set included his hit “Chi Chi” and well as nonprintable chants of “FTP” (think of the old N.W.A. song) (October 12, 2014)

Invocation of public opiniona

Quotes from Bystanders

32 St Louis Post-Dispatch. Winter said he was sure there were some racial disparities in Missouri that needed to be addressed but didn’t think standing behind a “made-up charge about a white police officer” was the right way to go about it. Additionally, he didn’t approve of the way the marchers were conducting themselves. “These people are on a road trip,” Winter said. “It’s like a high school graduation party driving around, honking their horns and having a good time” (Stuckey, December 6, 2014) St Louis Post-Dispatch. “At least they aren’t looting anything,” said Craig Valentine, 44, sitting in stalled traffic.” (November 30, 2014)

Reliance on official sources and definitionsa

Quotes from official sources

46 WSJ. “I am deeply saddened for the people of Ferguson who woke up to see parts of their community in ruins,” the governor said. “No one should have to live like this. No one deserves this. We must do better and we will.” (November 26, 2014) St Louis-Post-Dispatch. “These senseless acts of violence have been devastating to the city of Ferguson,” said Dan Isom, director of the Department of Public Safety. “These criminals must and will be held to account for their actions.” (November 27, 2014)

Demonizationa Violent Confrontations

21 WSJ. After pushing ensued at the police barricades, a melee broke out. (November 28, 2014) St Louis Post-Dispatch. Police already tense from a series of violent confrontations have turned to 12-hour shifts and limits on vacations as they face a new challenge of potentially hostile protests that may blanket the region this weekend (October 10, 2014)

(continued)

Table I. Protest paradigm, additional characteristics, and examples

728

EDI 36,8

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

The protest paradigma

and additional characteristicsc Operationalization

Percent present Example

Illegal character of protest

42 Chicago Tribune. Police made 83 arrests for mainly minor offenses St Louis Post-Dispatch. This time, the protests were largely peaceful. St Louis County police made just one arrest. It was for unlawful assembly near the Ferguson police station. (November 27, 2014) St Louis Post-Dispatch. County police reported Wednesday that 51 people were arrested between 8 a.m. Tuesday and 8 a.m. Wednesday in the Ferguson protests…Most of them were charged with refusal to disperse. (August 21, 2014)

Social and economic disruption

54 WSJ. Protestors in Oakland, Calif., wearing T-shirts reading “black lives matter” shut down train service on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system between San Francisco and the East Bay for more than an hour Friday morning. The protestors chained themselves to each other and to trains, blocking service in both directions at the system’s West Oakland station… carries as many as 400,00 passengers daily. (November 28, 2014) NY Times, In New York, thousands of people have tried to close major roads, bridges and tunnels, disrupting the rhythms of the city. In Berkeley, Calif., an Amtrak train was forced to stop, a central freeway was closed for hours and regional commuter trains were halted. (December 14, 2014)

Episodic reporting

41 Example N/A, general listing of events without context

Overall tone (negative)

35 LA Times. Protests unfolded in major cities across the nation Tuesday night as more than 2,000 National Guard troops and hundreds of police officers converged in the St Louis area to guard against the vandalism, arson and looting that erupted in suburban Ferguson a night earlier. (Queally and Muskal, November 26, 2014)

Delegitimizationa Appearance and performance

56 NY Post. The black caskets were placed in Foley Square, with one, marked “Staten Island,” embellished with various names, including Garner’s and the day he died – July 17, 2014 …. The Union Square rabble rousers met their cohorts in Foley Square… (December 5, 2014)

Identify key issuesb

35 St Louis Post-Dispatch. St Louis earned this moment by spending too much of its history refusing to invest in communities dominated by African- American citizens and refusing them admittance to neighborhoods dominated by whites. Those decisions became the oxygen that fed the flame of the protest: concentrated poverty, not enough jobs, separate and unequal schools, and poor health care. (Editorial Board, August 24, 2014)

Blame attributionc 19 St Louis Post- Dispatch. On Sunday, a man fired shots at two St Louis officers about 6 p.m. as they were

(continued) Table I.

729

Black Lives Matter articles

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

Notably, much of the coverage failed to adequately explain the reasons for the protests. While many articles mentioned the deaths of unarmed Blacks at the hands of police, according to the publicized objectives and intentions of the BLM, these tragic incidents are just one aspect of a larger system of discrimination, racism, and injustice in the USA that the movement seeks to change. Without taking these elements into account and giving them proper treatment when writing about the protests, journalists further delegitimize the movement.

Some articles called into question the innocence or victim-status of the adults and children who were killed. Others referred to those killed as “alleged” victims – serving to delegitimize the protests and dehumanize people who died at the hands of police. While journalists often use the term “alleged” to avoid assigning blame to a person who has not been convicted by a court of law (i.e. “alleged shooter”), using the term to describe someone who has been injured or killed questions their status as a victim. By introducing the idea that perhaps those killed might somehow be responsible for their own deaths, journalists reframe the discussion completely (see also Huspek, 2004; Obasogie and Newman, 2016). In that same vein, dedicating significant space to describing destruction wrought by protesters serves to demonize and delegitimize the protests, even as journalists may seek to accurately describe what took place during a protest event. Several articles noted that hundreds and in some cases thousands of protesters joined in the numerous marches, rallies, vigils and parades covered in the newspapers. Despite the comparatively small numbers of protesters who participated in criminal or destructive acts during the protests, these acts were mentioned predominantly, at times in headlines, and prior to any acknowledgment that most protesters participated in the events peacefully, if this was acknowledged at all.

It is important to reiterate that the protest paradigm characteristics are considered to be partly the result of the routinized production of news. While reporters’ own ideological beliefs, biases, or preferences do have the potential to impact their work, the ever changing and constantly churning realm of news means that most stories need to be attention grabbing, produced quickly, and easy to understand. Efforts to streamline the process – like

The protest paradigma

and additional characteristicsc Operationalization

Percent present Example

responding to a call for “suspicious person” in the 4,500 block of Chouteau Avenue. They returned fire, and he ran. Nobody was hit or arrested. (10-10-2014) NY Post. A cop’s personal car was set ablaze near the 77th Precinct station house in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Some four or five people were spotted running from the scene, and cops suspect the torching may be related to the protests. (October 10, 2014)

Protester quotes (total)c 66% Relevant 23 St Louis Post-Dispatch. “We need people to have discussions with children about what systematic oppression is,” she said. (August 31, 2014)

Irrelevant 43 NYTimes. “I didn’t like the fact that people were profiting off T-shirts, flags and hats,” said Jay Bad Heart Bull, 36, who runs a nonprofit in Minneapolis. “I even saw a dog with a shirt that said, ‘I can’t breathe.’ I respect the hustle, but I want it to be for a purpose. How does that help our community?” (December 14, 2014)

Notes: aProtest Paradigm Characteristics; bfailure to identify key issues is a sign of delegitimization. In this case, 35 percent of articles identified key issues, meaning 65 percent of articles did not; cadditional Characteristics identified through textual analysisTable I.

730

EDI 36,8

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

having a contact within a city official’s office who can immediately provide a quote, or quoting a bystander rather than attempting to find a protest organizer to get a clearer picture are understandable and, at times, necessary to meet deadlines. The analysis of the negative aspects of protest coverage is not to demonize journalists, editors, or other producers of news. Rather, the analysis is to bring to the forefront one side effect of news routines and the roles routines play in reproducing systemic racial bias (van Dijk, 2015).

Contributions and suggestions for research and practice As BLM is a relatively new social movement about which academic study is rapidly increasing, this paper contributes to the literature by investigating the coverage of BLM in mainstream news articles. We found that all of the protest paradigm characteristics were present in coverage of BLM. In a significant addition to the literature, we identified a new variable, blame attribution, which may be unique to black protestors and which may be associated with widespread criminalization of blacks in America.

Suggestions for research In addition to the journalistic norms that contribute to the protest paradigm, McLeod (2007) proposes that the origins of the protest paradigm include such things as bias of the reporter and cultural and ideological blinders of the social system, which are particularly relevant to coverage of BLM. An important research question would ask whether race of the reporter affects adherence to the protest paradigm and framing of social movements. Blacks and whites have very different perceptions about police misconduct (Weitzer and Tuch, 2004), discrimination, and many other racial issues; these differences may also reflect black and white reporters’ attitudes, articles, and editors’ decisions of whether to even cover an event.

Researchers might study more directly the relationship between framing of BLM and readers’ attitudes toward the movement and toward blacks in general. Experimental studies, with the relevant variables manipulated, using diverse samples may provide insights into these relationships. Are there attitude differences about BLM between groups based on race, ethnicity, sex, and age? Does media coverage of protests directly affect people’s willingness to participate in BLM or to engage with blacks in other contexts, including as neighbors, coworkers, and customers? Lastly, we recommend that scholars of the protest paradigm investigate whether blame attribution, the newly identified variable, exists in coverage of other social movements.

Suggestions for practice Although some headway has been made in increasing diversity among journalists in mainstream media organizations since the 1960s, the numbers of racial and ethnic minorities in such organizations remain woefully small, and relatively few are in positions of power (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2004). Further, the tenuous position of Black journalists in mainstream media organizations requires them to engage in a careful, stressful balancing act (Drew, 2011; Hacker, 1994; Newkirk, 2000). In addition to continuing to pursue greater diversity, a critical mass of black journalists in an organization could be expected to make more of a difference than would one or two (Konrad et al., 2008).

More diverse news organizations should be less likely to create and disseminate racially, culturally, or otherwise derogatory or stereotypical products, including news articles. The diversity literature is replete with examples of organizations’ costly diversity blunders that could have been avoided by having and giving voice to diverse team members’ perspectives. As just one example, outrage ensued in April of 2017 after Pepsi released an internally produced commercial in which a white supermodel emerged from a protesting crowd to defuse tensions by offering an armed officer a can of Pepsi. After a firestorm of

731

Black Lives Matter articles

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

criticism, including charges that it trivialized the movement against police violence, the company withdrew the ad and apologized one day after unveiling it.

Media organizations must attend to race, racism, and bias in reporting, and deal directly with racism and stereotyping among journalists and editors, who are embedded in the entrenched race discrimination system that spurred BLM; concerted efforts to address race in the media are required (Drew, 2011). Blacks are overrepresented as crime perpetrators in television news stories compared to their respective crime rates (Dixon and Linz, 2000); higher news consumption is related to perceptions of blacks as violent (Dixon, 2008) and in news experiments, unidentified crime perpetrators were believed to be black (Dixon, 2007).

Media representations play a role in negative perceptions about blacks among the population (Dixon and Linz, 2000; Entman, 1994; Entman and Gross, 2008) and these negative perceptions affect blacks in myriad ways, with widespread repercussions. These representations exacerbate associations of blacks with criminality, affecting blacks with or without criminal records, at various levels of socio-economic and educational status.

High task demands and cognitive load that exist in fast-paced environments, such as exist in news production, lead to greater reliance on stereotypes (Macrae et al., 1993; Sherman et al., 2000; Van Knippenberg et al., 1999). For black protestors, this may lead journalists to use terminology associated with crime, lawlessness, and violence, regardless of whether these are primary foci in the event or exist at all. Our finding of blame attribution in nearly 20 percent of the articles and the use of other racialized derogatory terminology (e.g. “a gang of clergy”; McClellan, 2014) could be reflective of the fast-paced decision-making environment which contributes to reliance on stereotypes that negatively affect perceptions about BLM and BLM protestors. Because people tend to seek stereotype-matching information, specific efforts to avoid such behaviors must be embedded into the news production system. Were journalists required to consider more relevant information, rather than relying on bystanders and other convenient sources such as is standard in routinized production, reliance on stereotypes could be attenuated (Johnston and Macrae, 1994). Given pressure of deadlines and an increasingly fast-paced environment, technology, such as mandatory pre-publication searches for stereotypical and biased terminology and framing, could be employed.

Human resources research suggests that managerial discretion in decision making and lack of monitoring of those decisions allow managers to act on stereotyping and biases, and this helps maintain inequality (Elvira and Zatzick, 2002; Reskin, 2012). In media organizations, editorial and journalistic discretion likely also allows acting on stereotyping and biases that help maintain inequality. Implicit association testing, training, and education about ways in which biases can affect reporting, coupled with monitoring of articles to identify and remove problems in articles before they are published may be helpful.

Limitations and conclusion We used seven US-based mainstream newspapers to investigate our research questions, and although they were purposefully chosen, it is possible that other outlets or a different time period would have had different results. In addition, social media and alternative media sites are likely to cover BLM differently than mainstream news organizations (Rohlinger et al., 2012). While the contribution of those outlets to the national conversation should not be overlooked, the reach of mainstream news media is so enormous that it deserves its own analysis.

In conclusion, though BLM began during the presidency of the first black President of the USA, this period is described by some researchers as “most-racial,” rather than “post-racial” (Tesler, 2016). In the face of rising inequality, racism, hatred, and resistance, the media’s responsibility to accurately reflect BLM and its purposes, goals, and motivations is enormous.

732

EDI 36,8

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

References

Adam, J. and MacMillan, T. (2014), “Thousands protest across country after Eric Garner grand-jury decision; anger continues over decision not to indict police offer in the death of unarmed black man”, Wall Street Journal.

Addo, K. (2014), “Weariness of Ferguson protests grows”, St Louis Post-Dispatch.

Amenta, E., Elliott, T.A., Shortt, N., Tierney, A.C., Türkoğlu, D. and Vann, B. (2017), “From bias to coverage: what explains how news organizations treat social movements”, Sociology Compass, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 1-12.

Araiza, J.A., Sturm, H.A., Istek, P. and Bock, M.A. (2016), “Hands up, don’t shoot, whose side are you on? Journalists tweeting the Ferguson protests”, Cultural Studies? Critical Methodologies, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 305-312.

Beckwith, K. (2007), “Mapping strategic engagements: women’s movements and the state”, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 312-338.

Boyle, M.P., McCluskey, M.R., Devanathan, N., Stein, S.E. and McLeod, D. (2004), “The influence of level of deviance and protest type on coverage of social protest in Wisconsin from 1960 to 1999”, Mass Communication & Society, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 43-60.

Boyle, M.P., McLeod, D.M. and Armstrong, C.L. (2012), “Adherence to the protest paradigm: the influence of protest goals and tactics on news coverage in US and international newspapers”, The International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 127-144.

Brennen, B. (2012), Qualitative Research Methods for Media Studies, Routledge, New York, NY.

Byers, C. and Patrick, R. (2014), “Police brace for weekend of protests”, St Louis Post-Dispatch.

Cullors, P., Tometi, O. and Garza, A. (2017), “What we believe”, available at: https://blacklivesmatter.com/ about/what-we-believe/ (accessed July 21, 2017).

Dardis, F.E. (2006), “Marginalization devices in US press coverage of Iraq war protest: a content analysis”, Mass Communication & Society, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 117-135.

Di Cicco, D.T. (2010), “The public nuisance paradigm: changes in mass media coverage of political protest since the 1960s”, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol. 87 No. 1, pp. 135-153.

Dixon, T.L. (2007), “Black criminals and white officers: the effects of racially misrepresenting law breakers and law defenders on television news”, Media Psychology, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 270-291.

Dixon, T.L. (2008), “Crime news and racialized beliefs: understanding the relationship between local news viewing and perceptions of African Americans and crime”, Journal of Communication, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 106-125.

Dixon, T.L. and Linz, D. (2000), “Overrepresentation and underrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos as lawbreakers on television news”, Journal of Communication, Vol. 50 No. 2, pp. 131-154.

Drew, E.M. (2011), “ ‘Coming to terms with our own racism’: journalists grapple with the racialization of their news”, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Vol. 28 No. 4, pp. 353-373.

Eliasoph, N. (1988), “Routines and the making of oppositional news”, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 313-334.

Elvira, M.M. and Zatzick, C.D. (2002), “Who’s displaced first? The role of race in layoff decisions”, Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 329-361.

Entman, R.M. (1994), “African-Americans according to TV-news”, Media Studies Journal, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 29-38.

Entman, R.M. and Gross, K.A. (2008), “Race to judgment: stereotyping media and criminal defendants”, Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 71 No. 4, pp. 93-133.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2004), “Diversity in the media: a chart book for selected industries (2004)”, US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, available at: www.eeoc. gov/eeoc/statistics/reports/media/media.pdf (accessed July 21, 2017).

733

Black Lives Matter articles

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

Feuerherd, B., Prendergast, D. and Fredericks, B. (2014), “IT WAS NOT A CRIME ‘Burn that *&% tree!’ ”, NY Post.

Gamson, W.A. and Wolfsfeld, G. (1993), “Movements and media as interacting systems”, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 528, pp. 114-125.

Greenberg, J. (2015), “The New York Times says it has more subscribers than ever”, Wired.com, available at: www.wired.com/2015/10/new-york-times-subscribers-ever/ (accessed July 21, 2017).

Hacker, A. (1994), “Are the media really white”, Media Studies Journal, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 81-88.

Hertog, J.K. and McLeod, D.M. (1995), “Anarchists wreak havoc in downtown Minneapolis: a multi-level study of media coverage of radical protest”, Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs, No. 151, pp. 1-48.

Hrach, T.J. (2016), The Riot Report and the News, University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA.

Huspek, M. (2004), “Black press, White press, and their opposition: the case of the police killing of Tyisha Miller”, Social Justice, Vol. 31 Nos 1/2, pp. 217-241.

Johnston, L.C. and Macrae, C.N. (1994), “Changing social stereotypes: the case of the information seeker”, European Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 581-592.

Konrad, A.M., Kramer, V. and Erkut, S. (2008), “Critical mass: the impact of three or more women on corporate boards”, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 145-164.

LA Times (2016), “Facts about the times”, LA Times, available at: www.latimes.com/about/la-facts- about-the-times-storygallery.html (accessed July 21, 2017).

Lee, F.L. (2014), “Triggering the protest paradigm: examining factors affecting news coverage of protests”, International Journal of Communication, Vol. 8, pp. 2725-2746.

McCarthy, J.D. and Zald, M.N. (1977), “Resource mobilization and social movements: a partial theory”, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 82 No. 6, pp. 1212-1241.

McCarthy, J.D., McPhail, C. and Smith, J. (1996), “Images of protest: dimensions of selection bias in media coverage of Washington demonstrations, 1982 and 1991”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 61 No. 3, pp. 478-499.

McClellan, B. (2014), “McClellan: be gone 2014”, St Louis Post-Dispatch.

McLeod, D.M. (1995), “Communicating deviance: the effects of television news coverage of social protest”, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 4-19.

McLeod, D.M. (2007), “News coverage and social protest: how the media’s protest paradigm exacerbates social conflict”, Journal of Dispute Resolution, Vol. 2007 No. 1, pp. 185-194.

McLeod, D.M. and Detenber, B.H. (1999), “Framing effects of television news coverage of social protest”, Journal of Communication, Vol. 49 No. 3, pp. 3-23.

McLeod, D.M. and Hertog, J.K. (1992), “The manufacture of ‘public opinion’ by reporters: informal cues for public perceptions of protest groups”, Discourse & Society, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 259-275.

McLeod, D.M. and Hertog, J.K. (1999), “Social control, social change and the mass media’s role in the regulation of protest groups”, in Demers, D.P. and Viswanath, K. (Eds), Mass Media, Social Control, and Social Change: A Macrosocial Perspective, Iowa State University Press, Ames, IA, pp. 305-330.

Macrae, C.N., Hewstone, M. and Griffiths, R.J. (1993), “Processing load and memory for stereotype-based information”, European Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 77-87.

Newkirk, P. (2000), Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media, NYU Press.

Obasogie, O.K. and Newman, Z. (2016), “Black Lives Matter and respectability politics in local news accounts of officer-involved civilian deaths: an early empirical assessment”, Wisconsin Law Review, pp. 541-574.

Oliver, P.E. and Myers, D.J. (1999), “How events enter the public sphere: conflict, location, and sponsorship in local newspaper coverage of public events”, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 105 No. 1, pp. 38-87.

734

EDI 36,8

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

Queally, J. and Muskal, M. (2014), “TURMOIL IN FERGUSON; Ferguson’s anger builds and spreads; many residents appear to be shocked by the destruction. Protests in other cities are more peaceful”, LA Times.

Reskin, B. (2012), “The race discrimination system”, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 38, pp. 17-35. Rohlinger, D.A., Kail, B., Taylor, M. and Conn, S. (2012), “Outside the mainstream: social movement

organization media coverage in mainstream and partisan news outlets”, in Coy, P.C. (Ed.), Media, Movements, and Political Change, Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 33, pp. 51-80.

Schudson, M. (1989), “The sociology of news production”, Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 263-282.

Sherman, J.W., Macrae, C.N. and Bodenhausen, G.V. (2000), “Attention and stereotyping: cognitive constraints on the construction of meaningful social impressions”, European Review of Social Psychology, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 145-175.

Smith, J., McCarthy, J.D., McPhail, C. and Augustyn, B. (2001), “From protest to agenda building: description bias in media coverage of protest events in Washington, DC”, Social Forces, Vol. 79 No. 4, pp. 1397-1423.

Susman, T. (2014), “Trying to give protests purpose”, Chicago Tribune. Tesler, M. (2016), Post-Racial or Most-Racial?: Race and Politics in the Obama Era, University of

Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. USA Today (2016), “USA TODAY NETWORK serves the 4th largest digital audience for news”,

USA Today, available at: www.usatoday.com/story/news/pr/2016/08/17/network-4th-largest- digital-audience-news-publishers/88899538/ (accessed July 21, 2017).

van Dijk, T.A. (2015), Racism and the Press, Routledge, London. Van Knippenberg, A., Dijksterhuis, A. and Vermeulen, D. (1999), “Judgement and memory of a criminal

act: the effects of stereotypes and cognitive load”, European Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 29 Nos 2-3, pp. 191-201.

Veneti, A., Karadimitriou, A. and Poulakidakos, S. (2016), “Media ecology and the politics of dissent: representations of the Hong Kong protests in the Guardian and China Daily”, Social Media and Society, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 1-13.

Weiner, M.F. (2010), “All the news that's fit to print? Silence and voice in mainstream and ethnic press accounts of African American protest”, in Coy, P. (Ed.), Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, West Yorkshire, pp. 297-324.

Weitzer, R. and Tuch, S.A. (2004), “Race and perceptions of police misconduct”, Social Problems, Vol. 51 No. 3, pp. 305-325.

Corresponding author Myrtle P. Bell can be contacted at: [email protected]

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website: www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm Or contact us for further details: [email protected]

735

Black Lives Matter articles

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )

This article has been cited by:

1. Ashburn-NardoLeslie, Leslie Ashburn-Nardo, ThomasKecia, Kecia Thomas, RobinsonAspen J., Aspen J. Robinson. 2017. Broadening the conversation: why Black Lives Matter. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal 36:8, 698-706. [Citation] [Full Text] [PDF]

D ow

nl oa

de d

by 7

3. 13

4. 12

5. 18

1 A

t 12

:4 9

13 A

pr il

2 01

8 (P

T )