Moving Beyond the Sound Bite: Complicating the Relationship Between Negative Television News Framing and In-Depth Reporting on Activism

Social movements often want their protests to gain media attention, yet most media coverage negatively portrays activists. Many assume that this negative coverage of protesters precludes substantive coverage of the movement, but our research is the first to test this assumption. Using content analysis of 754 television news reports about the Global Justice Movement and the Tea Party Movement, we find that frames that marginalize the protesters are often coupled with in-depth, factual coverage of social movements. Contrary to common assumptions, the results show that the presence of negative framing is not necessarily bad publicity for social movements. Instead, we find that the news segments that provide unflattering descriptions of protesters are more likely to provide in-depth information about the movement and the activists' grievances and demands.