In a global media environment characterized by change and conflict, narratives are especially useful to understand how the media form and distribute shared understanding of how the world works and who the important actors are. As the borders between local and global politics are blurred in the digital media landscape, protesters are in increased rate turning their placards to global broadcasters’ cameras, especially when political movements such as the U.S.-based Black Lives Matter movement get international counterparts. The scholarship concerned with the framework through which the media report protests argue the protest paradigm offers useful variables for the study of protests, while problematizing the lack of research on global broadcasting media. Global broadcasters, International Relations scholars argue, need to be understood as resources of soft power that distribute strategic narratives, but they have yet to develop a methodology for how broadcasts can be empirically studied. With this research gap as a point of departure, the chosen case study is the unrest in Ferguson in August 2014. A quantitative mapping and a comparative narrative analysis focusing on the narrative structure were conducted on 16 days of news bulletins from Al Jazeera English, BBC World News and RT. The results show several differences in the reports, the first concerns the amount of attention that was given to Ferguson by each broadcaster, where RT gave almost twice the amount of attention as the other two broadcasters. Further differences were found in the sources each broadcaster used and how they used violence as an entry-point to what their narratives where about, which in the case of AJE was the effects violence has on a society; BBCW’s narrative was of a political issue of high importance that concerns people of color; whereas RT’s narrative was about the militarization of the U.S. police force. The results imply the global broadcasters offer distinctive narratives, which through different storytelling techniques convey different attitudes and morals.

Since Greta Thunberg started her environmental school strike in August 2018 she has become a world famous activist and has been portrayed in news media everywhere. The aim of this bachelor study has been to examine how Greta Thunberg has been portrayed in the Swedish news media through examining two daily press newspapers and two evening press newspapers. This resulted in analyzing articles in Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. By using a qualitative and a quantitative content analysis we investigated three different events connected to Greta Thunberg through published articles. During 2018 the event that started her journey, which is the school strike, was selected as one of these happenings. During 2019 we chose her UN- speech in New York, and for the last event her speech at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos was chosen. By choosing these specific events we could build a perception of what the media's portrayal of Greta Thunberg has been like during these three years. Therefore this study also aimed to answer the following research questions: - How has Greta Thunberg been portrayed in the daily press and the evening press? - Has the portrayal of Greta Thunberg changed over time? In this study we used the Framing Theory and also the protest paradigms as guidelines and we also applied von Zabern & Tulloch (2020) and Bergmann & Ossewaardes (2020) different frames. This study then led to an identification of a new framing of Greta Thunberg which we named “Speaking without speaking”, mostly consisting of what politicians and celebrities are saying about Greta Thunberg in the press. We also found that by examining these specific events that Greta Thunberg has been portrayed in different ways. Therefore we could also conclude that the framings and portrayals of Greta Thunberg changed throughout time. This means that she went from being portrayed as a young girl skipping school for the climate, to a world famous environmental activist and finally becoming a trustworthy leader. Therefore our study shows that Greta Thunberg was being undermined due to her young age in the ibeginning, but as her status grew the media changed their portrayal of her into the role model that she has become today.

This diploma thesis examines the image of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests in 2019 in the Czech and Chinese media. The framing of these protests in selected media is compared using the method of quantitative content analysis, with the aim of revealing similarities and differences both between the individual Czech media in the context of the Czech public debate on China and between the Czech and Chinese media. The theoretical part of this thesis presents the concepts of media theory such as framing, agenda setting and social construction of reality and characterizes the specifics of given media systems. Furthermore, the work describes the previous findings of the protest paradigm, which are then employed in analytical part of this study. At the same time, the concept of soft power with Chinese characteristics and its specific manifestations in the efforts of the People's Republic of China to influence the Czech public debate on China is introduced. The methodological part then presents the research goal, research questions and hypotheses, defines the research sample and the research method used, including the characteristics of individual variables. The analytical part of the work presents the results of the research, which are then discussed in the framework of previous findings of the protest...

In an era where civil disobedience is more commonly used as a tactic for climate movements and media coverage is key for the success of the movement, this study explores the interplay between news media portrayal and activists strategies in the context of environmental activism, focusing on civil disobedience actions targeting famous artworks. By analyzing articles from prominent international newspapers and interviewing activists, this study delves into how news media frame these particular actions, and how activists themselves navigate challenges posed by news media portrayal. Drawing on research on the protest paradigm, the public nuisance paradigm and the activist dilemma, this study reveals that while media coverage often employs negative language to depict their actions and tactics, activists strategically utilize civil disobedience to amplify their message regardless of the risk of backlash. Despite initial challenges, activists remain committed to fostering dialogue and raising awareness of climate change by targeting iconic images, with the belief that people will hate them and their actions, but start talking about the climate.

The phenomenon surrounding news media’s power to alter group identity and group cohesion is something that rarely a point of focus in communication studies. In this study I worked with a local social movement group called Stockton Stands with Minneapolis. This group illustrated the importance of maintaining shared values. Utilizing relational Interviewing, SSWM members provided evidence showing the connection between news media and group success. News media has had a role in shaping group members’ understanding of SSWM and activism. SSWM has faced internal conflict as a result of negative news representation. SSWM is a relatively small and young (2 ½ years) group when compared to more established groups and movements (such as black lives matter and #MeToo), the impact of losing any amount of membership to news representation is important and deserves attention. Therefore, in this paper I argue researchers must go beyond the conventional protest paradigm and media effects research that has commonly only examined the impact of the outgroup. There is a need for a new area of focus within media effects and activist representation, one that examines the impact of news media through multiple lenses of analysis. I argue this area would benefit from incorporating theories and concepts across the communications studies discipline. Utilizing research from the fields of media effects, interpersonal communication, and organizational communication can bring new insights to already existing understandings of activism and activist success. To help lead the charge into this new area of focus; I introduce a new paradigm and research approach called social movement splintering.