The aim of this study was to explore how the Black Lives Matter movement was constructed on Instagram by American television channels the week after George Floyd was killed. The purpose was to answer the following questions; (1) What proportion of the posts were dedicated to the Black Lives Matter movement during the chosen week? (2) How was George Floyd and Derek Chauvin portrayed on the media ́s Instagram? (3) What words and images were used to describe the Black Lives Matter movement? (4) What similarities and differences can be found between the channels ́ portrayals of the Black Lives Matter movement? The approach chosen was a multi-method research, thus using a both qualitative and quantitative design. Based on this method 112 Instagram posts uploaded between May 27th and June 2nd, 2020 were analyzed. CNN, Fox News and MSNBC are the largest news channels in the United States and therefore chosen for this study. Our study concluded that the overall presentation of the Black Lives Matter movement was positive, in terms of the total reporting from all three channels. Observing the channels separately, CNN and MSNBC mostly portrayed it positively, while Fox News mostly negatively. According to our analysis, the reason why the posts could be perceived in this way was based on the words used and images displayed. The words death, looter, and violence provided a negative understanding of the situation. Whereas the words such as loving, solidarity and freedom created a positive appearance. Overall the study found that the proportion of reporting on Black Lives Matter was vast in comparison to other news stories on all three channels. However, one of the substantial differences between them was the portrayal of the offender Derek Chauvin and the victim George Floyd.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-100369 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Engvall, Elsa, Ness, Penellopé |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ), Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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