Deaf President Now! Positive Media Framing of a Social Movement within a Hegemonic Political Environment

Abstract

Newspaper coverage of the political movement Deaf President Now (DPN) was evaluated for evidence of positive or negative framing in photographic and written content. This research found that DPN enjoyed four exclusively positive frames in the media. The results of this study suggest that the coverage was due to several factors: the intended availability of protest sources, a lack of expedience on the part of elite sources, the organization of protest events, assimilation of elites within the movement, frame extension of the movement's causes, sponsorship from corporations, liaisons with journalists, the narrow focus of the movement, and the ideological assumptions of disability in society. This article suggests that only through the serendipitous conjunction of all the above-mentioned traits was DPN able to achieve its goals. Furthermore, because of these exceptional qualities, it was suggested that the positive media frames of DPN did not contradict any previous claims of oppressive hegemonic structures within political media coverage.