The news coverage of the 2017 general strikes: Protest paradigm or political slant

Abstract

The protest paradigm is a concept widely used in the international literature in studies on the mass media's unfavorable treatment of political and social protests. There are three explanations for such treatment: (1) it varies depending on the ideological values of the media outlet (the more conservative, the higher the probability of adopting the paradigm of protest); (2) it varies depending on the position of the protest in relation to the status quo; and (3) it does not always occur. In this paper, we analyze the Brazilian media's coverage of the general strikes of 2017 against the Labor and Social Security reforms, examining the speeches and images associated with the groups involved in the general strikes in the publication Jornal Nacional and in the newspapers Folha de S. Paulo, O Estado de S. Paulo, and O Globo. To this end, we implement the methodologies of framing analysis, image interpretation, and word clouds. The results confirm the occurrence of a protest paradigm in these cases and reveal five predominant ways of framing protests: (1) violence and vandalism; (2) selfish and disorganized action; (3) public disorder; (4) source of economic losses; and (5) lack of popular legitimacy. In conclusion, we reflect on this article's contribution to the international debate about the protest paradigm.