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Race riots have struck America’s cities large and small for more than a century, and the media have retold these brutal events for American audiences. The 1960s, in particular, endured years of violent rioting due to social and economic inequalities between whites and blacks, and many of these riots have received ample coverage from the media and academic scholars. However, a lesser-known riot that destroyed homes, devastated businesses, and took the lives of two individuals was the 1969 York, Pennsylvania race riots. Similar to more well-known riots, such as the 1965 Watts riot and the 1967 Detroit riot, the racial violence in York was the result of decades of inequalities and frustrations between blacks and whites. What sets this riot apart is that two murders that occurred over those twelve deadly days in 1969 would go unsolved for more than thirty years. The killing of a twenty-seven-year-old black woman, Lillie Belle Allen, and a twenty-two-year-old white rookie police officer, Henry C. Schaad, were not resolved until their killers were brought to justice in 2002 and 2003, respectively. This dissertation explores the development of journalistic approaches to covering race relations in the United States. The methods employed to cover the 1969 York race riots and subsequent murder trials differ greatly from those more recent racial protests today. First, an examination of coverage from 1968 and 1969 reveals how the newspaper and television news media dictated public opinion of these violent events and established the foundation for a historical narrative. Then, the study fast-forwards thirty years to when the local York media commemorated the thirty-year anniversary of the riots in 1999. Although the local media briefly revisited the story of the 1969 York riots after they transpired, this local story came back unexpectedly in full force in 1999. However, the local audience was not ready to remember those events. These commemorations not only broke the silence of many York citizens, but also magnified the inequalities and social issues facing York in the present while also instigating the reopening of the Allen and Schaad murder cases in 2000. In addition, the mayor of York, Charles Robertson, was arrested in 2001 for the murder of Allen, bringing the newsworthiness of this story to another level. Mayor Robertson’s involvement in the story suppressed the larger social issues that led to the riots and, instead, over-simplified the story as one, racist villain who instigated the violence. By examining the local, regional, and national media coverage of these events, I argue that the narratives used personified, dramatic style to express competing accounts of what caused the York race riots and the personas of the characters involved, as well as the larger issues or race relations and race reconciliation. By emphasizing the role of the news media as storytellers, this dissertation determines that the journalists created new, dramatic, and sometimes misleading, narratives that retold the story of the 1969 York race riots in the present. / Media & Communication

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A content analysis was conducted to determine the amount and type of causal explanation included in coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Christian Science Monitor. The data were analyzed to determine whether causal explanations were primarily societal or individual/situational. The primary purpose was to examine whether the press has altered its reporting techniques since the Kerner Commission report criticized the narrow, descriptive-based reporting of the 1960s riots. Study results indicate riot coverage was predominantly descriptive and similar in content to that detailed by the Kerner Commission. The most frequently cited cause was the triggering event, the Rodney King acquittal verdict.

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This study analyzed how mass media portrays specific groups of actors involved in burnings of the quran, more precisely, burners of the quran and demonstrators opposed to it. The study has compiled 18 digitally published news articles derived from four different news agencies. By using critical discourse analysis as a theoretical and methodological framework, the study has applied the three-dimensional model developed by Norman Fairclough to examine the empirical findings. Conducted analysis of the news articles resulted in the identification of three prevalent themes also referred to as discourses. Identified themes were as follows: “The normalization of violent riots”, “Collective culpability of demonstrators”, “The quranburners as victims and the process of victimization of the quranburners” Furthermore, an analysis of the identified themes was conducted. The mentioned themes were further analyzed with textual tools as provided by Fairclough, as well as two sociological theories as necessitated by Fairclough’s theory of critical discourse analysis. The theory of stigmatization and labeling theory were applied. The empirical findings suggest that violent riots are depicted as inevitable consequences, thus undergoing a process of normalization. Furthermore, the protesters present during the manifestations are generalized into specific social groups such as muslims or arabs. Burners of the quran were on the contrary depicted as victims in a vulnerable position. Lastly, a discussion is held regarding the possible repercussions the discourses may have on a societal level and their potential impact on the field of social work. / Denna studie analyserade hur massmedia porträtterar en specifik grupp av aktörer som är involverade i koranbränningar, nämligen, koranbrännare och demonstranter utifrån en kritisk diskursanalys. Studien har sammanställt 18 digitalt publicerade nyhetsartiklar från fyra olika nyhetsbyråer. Genom att använda kritisk diskursanalys som ett teoretiskt och metodiskt ramverk har studien tillämpat den tredimensionella modellen utvecklad av Norman Fairclough för att undersöka de empiriska resultaten av materialet. Genomförd analys av nyhetsartiklarna resulterade i identifierandet av tre förekommande teman, även refererade till som diskurser. Temana är följande: "Normaliseringen av våldsamma upplopp", "kollektiv skuldbeläggning av demonstranter", "Koranbrännarna som offer och viktimiseringsprocessen av koranbrännarna". Slutligen förs en analys av samtliga temana, nämligen "kampen mellan olika diskurser – hegemoni kontra antagonism". De nämnda temana analyserades vidare med diskursiva verktyg som tillhandahålls av Faircloughs tredimensionella modell och två sociologiska teorier som nödvändiggjordes av Faircloughs teori om kritisk diskursanalys, nämligen stigmatiseringsteorin och stämplingsteorin. Det empiriska resultatet tyder på att våldsamma upplopp framställs som oundvikliga konsekvenser och genomgår därmed en normaliseringsprocess. Vidare generaliseras demonstranterna under manifestationerna till specifika sociala grupper som muslimer eller araber. Koranbrännarna avbildades i kontrast som offer i en utsatt position. Slutligen diskuteras de möjliga konsekvenserna diskurserna kan få på samhällsnivå och deras potentiella inverkan på det sociala arbetets domän.

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Dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters: Public Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Protests are an integral part of many social, political and economic activities in societies all over the world, and the concept of protest is an on-going subject of scholarly endeavour. The occurrence of protests in South Africa, however, highlights significant deficit in meeting the huge expectations from a formerly disadvantaged majority of the population. Furthermore, the current preponderance of protest incidents in the Eastern Cape Province, and particularly in the Mbizana Local Municipality proffered the motive for this research. The incidence of protests in the study area, in most cases, has been attributed to poor service delivery and the high expectations for improved social and economic development. While issues related to the delivery of basic services are attended to, the continued occurrence and increasing intensity of these protest incidents, has led to the argument that other factors are also at play. Using a mixed methods approach, the study employed a questionnaire survey to elicit information linked to the incidence of protests. Two hundred and eighty respondents from three selected wards in the local municipality were randomly sampled, and three municipal officials were also interviewed to explore the factors influencing protest incidents in the study area. Findings from the study point to the profusion of unresolved community complaints coupled with slow- paced provision of services, intra-party disagreements among political factions in the municipal council, and crime-related incidents; as factors responsible for protests in the local municipality. The study shows the preponderance of disagreements among political party members as a leading cause for protest incidents, unrelated to the provision of basic services. Also, the demand for justice among victims of criminal incidents was found to be another reason for the increasing number of protest events in the Mbizana Local Municipality. / M

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