Intersectionality and News Coverage of Protests

• In Event: Nationalism, Communalism, and Hindu-Muslim Relations in South Asia

Abstract

As democracies worldwide experience backsliding, anti-government protests are an important outlet for people to voice discontent and prompt social change. With governments adopting Internet blackouts and other social media restrictions, the effectiveness of these protests is partly determined by how they are portrayed in traditional media outlets. I theorize that journalists and publishers balance competing pressures: the desire to sell more papers by printing protest news that accurately reflects the role of individuals within the protests with government threats to press freedom. Using this framework, I examine the 2019 and 2020 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in India. Muslims and women were critical protest organizers. Consequently, I hypothesize that they will be relatively more represented in articles about the CAA compared to non-CAA articles. However, government threats to press freedom will result in under-reporting of these individuals’ significance.

To test these expectations, I collect all newspaper articles published in the Times of India — the most read English-language newspaper in the world — during the protest period (N=49,056). I then identify all direct quotations in these articles (N=91,459) and who is recorded as having said the quote. I test my hypothesis by comparing the demographic characteristics of those quoted in CAA-related articles to non-CAA articles. I then use text analysis methods to examine the content of the quotes, including their sentiment and commonly used words. The results support my hypothesis: Muslims and women are directly quoted more in CAA-related articles, but remain vastly under-represented and largely sidelined in favor of government sources.

These findings speak to the critical role that traditional news media plays in broadcasting protest news. The broader project speaks to the conference theme of democratic retrenchment by suggesting that examining reporting in traditional news media may be helpful in measuring early stage democratic decline. India ranks 161 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index. As such, it is critical to understand the operation of India’s press during times of government dissent.

Author

• William O'Brochta, Texas Lutheran University