Media coverage of protests is a central part of the public discourse about these events. In recent years, movements like Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street have reignited media interest in protests. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms that influence media coverage of these protests. The objective of this article is to explore the ways that journalists and protesters interact to determine how protests are framed by the media.
We develop a model that examines how protesters and journalists struggle to frame a protest. The struggle is mediated by two main modes of coverage and relations: remoteness and proximity. The remoteness mode reflects the desire of online mainstream press to focus on violence and provocations, which protest consultants encourage. Proximity is expressed through photos that express a point of view or solidarity. Portrait photos of protesters are often used to express a conceptual unity, while photos taken from a distance imply power and control over the demonstrators.
The model also shows that differences in coverage of protests arise from the specific ideology of news outlets. The more ideological the media is, the more likely they are to portray a protest as a riot (Groseclose and Milyo 2005; Bae 2010). Differences in media framing are also influenced by the duration of the protest. A short protest is more likely to receive prominence in the media than a longer one, but even a long protest can lose salience over time.
