Undergraduate Research Journal
Abstract
Protests are one way in which minority groups, lacking representation or access to policy making to change their situation, bring attention to social justice issues deeply affecting them. However, although protests are generally an attempt to gain media attention, the media are often unsympathetic to the causes underlying the protests which they support. To the contrary, media tend to discredit these social movements and apply their own agenda to their reporting through a process called framing. Framing is rooted in the theory of social constructionism, wherein the media play a role in constructing our shared social reality. The way most media currently frame minority riots and protests has major implications for race relations within society. The way media responds to minority protests and social movements is examined in this paper; additionally, solutions to these media framing issues are speculated.
Recommended Citation
Pruitt, Vanessa
(2018)
"Racial Media Framing of Riots and Protests: A Constructionist View,"
Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 22, Article 10.
Available at:
https://openspaces.unk.edu/undergraduate-research-journal/vol22/iss1/10