Violent incongruencies: Analyzing The New York Times’s discourse on George Floyd demonstrations and the Capitol riot

Abstract

American news media outlets have a storied past of delegitimizing protest movements, particularly through violence. However, recent literature has suggested news media outlets in America are slowly beginning to pull away from this trend. Moreover, recent protest history has several memorable examples of this attempted course correction, such as CNN’s viral ‘fiery but mostly peaceful’ headline during the demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd. Along with this series of protest demonstrations, one of the most historically significant demonstrations of protest in the 2020s was the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021. This study utilized a discourse analysis methodology to explore textual and visual framing incongruencies of participant violence in The New York Times’s coverage of these historic demonstrations. Findings point to a consistent visual and textual framing of violence within the NYT’s coverage of George Floyd Demonstrations, but not within its coverage of the Capitol riot. Possible discrepancies in participant labeling were also observed.