Public opinion on protests is largely determined by news coverage. News media function as gatekeepers, who decide how news is communicated to the audience. In the case of protests against racism...Show morePublic opinion on protests is largely determined by news coverage. News media function as gatekeepers, who decide how news is communicated to the audience. In the case of protests against racism and police brutality, framing tended to be delegitimizing. This study questions the framing of protests against police brutality by news media within the context of newspaper and televised news coverage, researching long-term developments based on two case studies: the Rodney King riots (1992), and the George Floyd protests (2020). Using a critical discourse analysis of coverage from four newspapers and two news channels, this research examines the framing of protests by media outlets to constitute the dominant narrative of the publications. Next, articles and fragments were quantitatively coded using several terms and ‘coded words’ to generate counts of the words within the articles, which reinforce negative frames. Research suggests media coverage of protests does not necessarily follow a delegitimizing pattern anymore, but protesters are still viewed negatively by the media. These findings contributed to the understanding of the role of news media in the framing of protests against racism and police brutality.Show less
Due to the Venezuelan Exodus, Peru has received over 1,2 Million Venezuelan immigrants, provoking a turn towards the criminalization and securitization of migration. This study adopts a Discourse...Show moreDue to the Venezuelan Exodus, Peru has received over 1,2 Million Venezuelan immigrants, provoking a turn towards the criminalization and securitization of migration. This study adopts a Discourse-Historical Approach to investigate how Venezuelan immigrants in Peru are socio-politically criminalized in news articles by Exitosa Noticias shared on Facebook in February 2021. In a second part, the public response to these articles will be examined through an analysis of the Facebook comments, which can give an indication of discourse patterns on Venezuelan migration among a subgroup of the Peruvian population. The main findings are that news coverage by Exitosa Noticias and the dominant discourse perpetuated by their readership has strong elements of criminalization. By use of referential and predicational strategies, the Venezuelan immigrants are represented negatively in the comments and often linked to criminality.Show less
After the end of the Cold War, US – Russia relations have been fluctuating. In recent years, they have been deteriorating, partly because of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014. The...Show moreAfter the end of the Cold War, US – Russia relations have been fluctuating. In recent years, they have been deteriorating, partly because of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014. The portrayal in the media of the other has become increasingly negative in both states, and public opinion polls show that an increasing number of Americans and Russians saw each other as “unfavourable” in the months after the annexation. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the annexation was framed in both American and Russian news. It employs a deductive framing analysis, using five pre-defined, issue-specific frames, that were derived from the literature. The dataset consists of two articles each out of two Russian and two American newspapers. The thesis concludes that American and Russian news have framed the annexation differently: American news framed the annexation as an aggressive Russian act, whereas Russian news framed it as a result of the Crimean people freely expressing their will to reunite with Russia. As media has an influence on public opinion, the results of this research partly explain the decline of respective favourability in public opinion.Show less
