Post on 28-Jun-2015
Framing Dissent: News Coverage of Occupy and the
Egyptian Revolution
Christopher Fers cjfers@syr.edu
Imon Edmonsoniimon@syr.edu
Syracuse University, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication
Background
Protests
Occupy
Egyptian Revolution
Portrayal in the News
Theory – News Framing
Patterns of treatment
Create Narrative Structure
Facilitate Audience Engagement
Emphasis of values, facts, etc.
“Framing essentially involves selection of salience” - (Entman, 1993)
Theory – Protest Paradigm Excessive critique = axiomatic of
countercultural protest.
Gitlin’s “The Whole World is Watching” – Study of SDS treatment.
Frames used to delegitimize, marginalize, demonize.
E.g. Violence disproportionately reported.
Methods Quantitative Content Analysis
Inter-coder Reliability - Cohen’s Kappa
Sample - FoxNews.com, CNN.com, MSNBC.com & Aljazeera.com (n = 63)
Codes - Frames, Location, Time & Revolution
Absent or Present
Unit of Analysis - Whole Article
Level of Analysis – Institutional
Frames Injustice - how the people who are in involved in a
movement are treated immorally or wrongfully discriminated against
Legitimacy - Understanding and justification for the actions of the protest
Delegitimizing - discounting of the protestor’s position
Spectacle - allows for protestors to be viewed as deviant and wayward in their actions
Contextual - gives past history and references creation of the movement.
Time
U.S.
Non- US (Qatar)
Location
Event
Egypt Composite Week – 1/26/2011- 3/8/2011
Occupy Composite Week – 10/4/2011 – 11/21/2011
All Contemporary Composite Week - 1/29/2012 – 3/17/2012
OccupyEgyptian Revolution
Hypothesis 1, 2 & 4
Injustice (62.5 %), x2 = 14.38 , Cramer’s V= .53
Legitimacy (75%), x2 = 6.297, Cramer’s V= .35
Contextual (68.8%), x2 = 12.44, Cramer’s V= .294
US based news coverage of the Egyptian Revolution will contain more injustice, legitimizing, contextual frames than US based coverage of the Occupy movement.
Hypothesis 3 & 5
Delegitimizing (65.7%), x2 = 12.44 , Cramer’s V= .494
Spectacle = Not Significant X
US based news coverage of the Occupy Movement will contain more spectacle and delegitimizing frames than US based coverage of the Egyptian Revolution.
Hypothesis 6 & 7
Injustice (40 %), x2 = 2.801, Cramer’s V= .265
Legitimizing (100 %), x2 = 6.984, Cramer’s V= .418*
*(n = 5)
Non U.S. based news coverage of the Occupy movement will contain more injustice and legitimizing frames then U.S. based coverage.
Hypothesis 8 & 9
Delegitimizing (65.7 %), x2 = 7.731, Cramer’s V= .440
Spectacle (71.4 %), x2 = 9.52, Cramer’s V= .448
US based news coverage of the Occupy movement will contain more delegitimizing and spectacle frames than non-US based news coverage.
Hypothesis 10 & 11
Not Significant X
Early coverage of the Occupy Movement will contain more delegitimizing and spectacle frames than later coverage.
Hypothesis 12
Not Significant X
Later coverage of Occupy will contain more legitimizing frames than earlier coverage
Discussion & Future Research Foreign pro-democracy movements with
positive frames
Primarily anti-status quo movement with oppositional frames
Frames over time
Limitations
Suggestions for future research
News Coverage of Occupy and the Egyptian Revolution
Syracuse University, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication
Framing Dissent: Christopher Fers cjfers@syr.edu
Imon Edmonsoniimon@syr.edu