Framing a Movement: Media Portrayals of the George Floyd Protests on Twitter

Abstract

This study examines the way news media framed the protests following the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. It utilizes 510 tweets from 13 different U.S. media outlets in a mixed-methods content analysis of images tweeted by those media outlets. It looks at how protestors and police are portrayed as well as the role of race in the news images. Civil liberties, as opposed to law and order, are found to be a dominant frame. These findings suggest a change from previous research. Images of protestors were likely to include signs that are readable. Implications are discussed.

Keywords

social media framing content analysis race social movements protests

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