Coverage of Protest Stories in Tweets of International News Agencies: A comparative Analysis on Kashmir and Hong Kong Protests

Abstract

In April 2019 Hong Kong government introduced an extradition bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China. The introduction of the extradition bill resulted in an eruption of mass level peaceful protests across Hong Kong, which turned out to be more violent later on. On the other side, the protests in Kashmir erupted out after the Modi led Indian government revoked the special autonomous status of Kashmir on the 5th of August, 2019. A sudden and momentous decision to eliminate article 370 enrage the Kashmiri people being deprived of their rights resulting in massive protest across the valley. In the context of modern information and communication systems, the present study is designed to examine the protest paradigm in the international news coverage of Kashmir and Hong Kong's recent protests in tweets of international news agencies. Theoretically, the study takes roots from protest paradigm and international news flow. Methodologically, we employed content analysis method. Firstly, content analysis of purposively selected tweets of four international news agencies, AFP, AP, Reuters, and Xinhua, was performed. Secondly, we used visualization technique to examine the framing of international protests by employing news framing, and protest paradigm. Findings reveal that Protest paradigm is supported in context of international disputes due to the vested interests of global powers as well as the dominated agenda of international news agencies.