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Mainstream media and activist framing of activists use of social media

Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN Abstractpeer-review

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Mainstream media and activist framing of activists use of social media. / Pask-Hughes, Alexander.
2012. Abstract from Protest and the Media: 5th Annual Conference of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, London, United Kingdom.

Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN Abstractpeer-review

Harvard

Pask-Hughes, A 2012, 'Mainstream media and activist framing of activists use of social media', Protest and the Media: 5th Annual Conference of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, London, United Kingdom, 12/06/13 - 13/06/13.

APA

Pask-Hughes, A. (2012). Mainstream media and activist framing of activists use of social media. Abstract from Protest and the Media: 5th Annual Conference of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, London, United Kingdom.

Vancouver

Pask-Hughes A. Mainstream media and activist framing of activists use of social media. 2012. Abstract from Protest and the Media: 5th Annual Conference of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, London, United Kingdom.

Author

Pask-Hughes, Alexander. / Mainstream media and activist framing of activists use of social media. Abstract from Protest and the Media: 5th Annual Conference of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, London, United Kingdom.

Bibtex

@conference{80e8891df6df478988bd8f547dd3fdb5,
title = "Mainstream media and activist framing of activists use of social media",
abstract = "The aim of this paper is to explore media framing of the use of social media by activists protesting against the current Coalition government's austerity measures, with UK Uncut and Boycott Workfare highlighted as examples of these activist networks. Recent research from within social movement studies suggests that the definition of political opportunity structures must be broadened to include media opportunity structures (Crossley 2002; Cammaerts 2012). This approach contends that activists are aware of mediated political representations of their strategies, which in turn influence activist's protest repertoires.This paper adopts critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1995; Wodak 2001) as an approach to show how media framing of the utilisation of social media platforms by activists is used as a discursive strategy to delegitimise the claims of protesters. I argue that claims made by journalists and politicians within the field of mediated politics, such as on BBC's Newsnight, frame social media as a medium colonised by extremist opinion and an instrument employed by individual activists in order to mobilise their followers. Activists' use of social media is represented indualistic terms (Jurgenson 2012), where a separation between online and offline is strategically employed to discredit activists.",
author = "Alexander Pask-Hughes",
year = "2012",
month = jun,
day = "12",
language = "English",
note = "Protest and the Media: 5th Annual Conference of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication ; Conference date: 12-06-2013 Through 13-06-2013",

}

RIS

TY - CONF

T1 - Mainstream media and activist framing of activists use of social media

AU - Pask-Hughes, Alexander

PY - 2012/6/12

Y1 - 2012/6/12

N2 - The aim of this paper is to explore media framing of the use of social media by activists protesting against the current Coalition government's austerity measures, with UK Uncut and Boycott Workfare highlighted as examples of these activist networks. Recent research from within social movement studies suggests that the definition of political opportunity structures must be broadened to include media opportunity structures (Crossley 2002; Cammaerts 2012). This approach contends that activists are aware of mediated political representations of their strategies, which in turn influence activist's protest repertoires.This paper adopts critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1995; Wodak 2001) as an approach to show how media framing of the utilisation of social media platforms by activists is used as a discursive strategy to delegitimise the claims of protesters. I argue that claims made by journalists and politicians within the field of mediated politics, such as on BBC's Newsnight, frame social media as a medium colonised by extremist opinion and an instrument employed by individual activists in order to mobilise their followers. Activists' use of social media is represented indualistic terms (Jurgenson 2012), where a separation between online and offline is strategically employed to discredit activists.

AB - The aim of this paper is to explore media framing of the use of social media by activists protesting against the current Coalition government's austerity measures, with UK Uncut and Boycott Workfare highlighted as examples of these activist networks. Recent research from within social movement studies suggests that the definition of political opportunity structures must be broadened to include media opportunity structures (Crossley 2002; Cammaerts 2012). This approach contends that activists are aware of mediated political representations of their strategies, which in turn influence activist's protest repertoires.This paper adopts critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1995; Wodak 2001) as an approach to show how media framing of the utilisation of social media platforms by activists is used as a discursive strategy to delegitimise the claims of protesters. I argue that claims made by journalists and politicians within the field of mediated politics, such as on BBC's Newsnight, frame social media as a medium colonised by extremist opinion and an instrument employed by individual activists in order to mobilise their followers. Activists' use of social media is represented indualistic terms (Jurgenson 2012), where a separation between online and offline is strategically employed to discredit activists.

M3 - Abstract

T2 - Protest and the Media: 5th Annual Conference of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication

Y2 - 12 June 2013 through 13 June 2013

ER -