Overall, 71.16% of the images selected by the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs depicted peaceful protest activity.
May 26, 2020, marks the first day that coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd entered the national evening news cycle.
(n=3627), May 26, 2020 - June 7, 2020
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(n=3627), May 26, 2020 - June 7, 2020
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During the thirteen days of coverage sampled, evening broadcast news programs showed an average of 279 images of protests per day. Overall, 71.16% of the images selected by the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs depicted peaceful protest activity.
The first day of protest coverage was relatively light, only 14 images of protests were shown across all three news programs, with all of the images depicting peaceful protest activity. On May 27, 2020, the first images of violent protest activity entered the broadcasts, accounting for 11 (36.47%) of the 30 images shown. The next day, on May 28, 2020, coverage of the protests increased fourfold, with violent images comprising most of the broadcasts, accounting for 80 (62.99%) of the 127 total images.
Images of the protests, as well as the proportion of violent protest activity shown, continued to increase for the following two days, May 29, 2020 and May 30, 2020. On these days, broadcast news programs showed a close to even split between peaceful and violent images, with an average of 243 images of protests being shown, of which an average of 123 (50.62%) of those images showed violent visual frames.
On May 31, 2020, the three broadcast news programs begin to consistently show a greater number of peaceful protest images than violent protest images, a trend which carries through to the end of the sample period. Between May 31, 2020 and June 2, 2020, while the total number of images increases dramatically to its peak and then begins to taper off (266 images, 514 images, and 424 images respectively) the proportion of violent images remains relatively similar (104 images (39.10%), 201 images (39.11%) and 143 images (33.73%) respectively).
From June 3, 2020 to June 7, 2020, the proportion of violent images of protests reduced significantly. During this time, the three broadcast news stations showed between 8.84% and 15.89% violent images, with the exception of June 5, 2020 when 68 (24.55%) of the 277 images depicted violent protest activity. This period of time also saw a constant reduction in the total number of images of protest shown with the exception of June 6, 2020 which had the second highest number of images shown (487 images) in the entire sample period.
Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project recorded 92.45% of the protests between May 26, 2020 and June 7, 2020 as being peaceful.
ACLED tracking found protest events to be overwhelmingly peaceful, of the 4,699 protest events only 355 were recorded as being violent.
(n=4699), May 26, 2020 - June 7, 2020
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(n=4699), May 26, 2020 - June 7, 2020
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The total number of protests occurring were relatively few on the first two days of the sample period, May 26, 2020 and May 27, 2020 (16 and 22 protests respectively). For these first two days, only two protests were recorded as being violent each day. These violent protests accounted for 12.50% and 9.09% of total protest activity respectively.
The proportion of violent protests peaked on May 28, 2020 with 17 (23.94%) of the 71 protests categorized as being violent. The number of protests occurring across the country continued to increase on May 29, 2020, totaling 165 events, while the proportion of violent protests (36 violent protests (21.82%)) began to reduce. The following day, May 30, 2020, saw a significant shift in the total number of protests occurring, increasing to 453 protests.
On May 30, 2020 and May 31, 2020, the highest number of violent protests were recorded, with 93 and 94 violent protests happening across the country respectively. Despite the increase in violence on these days, due to a simultaneous increase in peaceful protests, the total proportion of violent protests was less than that recorded on May 28, 2020.
Between May 30, 2020 and June 7, 2020, the total number of protests that occurred remained relatively consistent, while the number of violent protests continued to decrease. On June 6, 2020, the number of protests occurring across the country peaked, with a total of 722 events.
Protestors were the most frequently depicted primary subject, featured in 2,624 (73.01%) of 3,594 images.
Images featuring protestors depicted predominately peaceful actions, while images featuring police/military members showed a higher proportion of violent visual frames.
(n=3594)
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(n=3594)
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Of the visual frames featuring protestors, 1,915 (72.98%) showed peaceful actions while 709 (27.02%) showed violent actions.
Police and military members were the primary subject in far fewer frames, accounting for 664 (18.48%) of the total 3,594 images. For the visual frames which featured police and military members, 398 (59.94%) showed peaceful actions while 266 (40.06%) showed violent actions.
Visual frames that featured both protestors and police/military members as the primary subject accounted for 306 (8.51%) of the 3,594 images. Of the frames that depicted both protestors and police/military members, 255 (83.33%) images showed them engaged in peaceful action. Meanwhile, 51 (16.66%) of the frames showing both protestors and police/military members depicted conflict where the perpetrator was unclear.
Images of protestor violence most frequently showed scenes of arson, looting, and vandalism.
(n=709)
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(n=709)
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(n=709)
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For violent visual frames which featured protestors as the primary actor, the most prevalent actions shown were arson, property damage, and looting, accounting for a combined 576 (81.24%) of the 709 images.
Images which showed protestor-initiated arson, including either active fires or the aftermath of fires, comprised 294 (41.47%) of violent visual frames featuring protestors as the primary subject. Secondarily, images which showed protestors either actively engaging in looting or property damage or the aftermath of these actions, such as broken windows or smashed vehicles, comprised 282 (39.77%) of violent visual frames featuring protestors as the primary subject. The third most prevalent frame featuring violent actions of protestors were images of protestors being arrested, totaling 71 (10.01%) images. While these images do not necessarily depict protestors engaging in violent activity, they are normatively interpreted to represent protestors having previously engaged in violent activity.
While images of protestors engaging in violence against property were prevalent, few visual frames depicted protestors engaging in violence against people, totaling 53 (7.48%) images. Only 43 (6.06%) visual frames showed protestors using weapons against other individuals, with the most common weapon used being fireworks shot low, along the ground, typically towards a line of police or military members. Very few frames depicted protestors initiating physical conflicts, typically against police or military member, only accounting for 10 (1.41%) images.
Images of police violence most frequently showed police using weapons against protestors and initiating physical conflicts.
(n=266)
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(n=266)
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For violent visual frames which featured police or military as the primary actor, the majority depicted these service personnel engaging in violence against protestors.
The most common images showed police/military members using weapons against protestors, primarily teargas and rubber bullets, accounting for 142 (53.38%) of the 266 total images. The second most common category was police/military members initiating a physical confrontation with protestors, accounting for 89 (33.46%) of the 266 total images.
Protestors’ violent actions were generally made more salient than police/military members’ violent actions, with the exception of three days of coverage.
(n=1002), May 26, 2020 - June 7, 2020
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(n=1002), May 26, 2020 - June 7, 2020
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Images of violent protest activity first enter the broadcasts on May 27, 2020. On this day, violent actions by police/military members is emphasized, but relatively few images are shown, with only six total images of police violent actions and only two total images of protestor violent actions.
From here, protestor violent actions are shown in a significantly higher proportion, especially from May 28, 2020 to May 31, 2020. During these four days of coverage, there is an average of 92.5 images shown per day depicting violent actions by protestors, compared to an average of 9.75 images depicting violent actions by police/military members. A far greater number of visual frames showing violent actions by police/military members are shown on June 1, 2020 and June 2, 2020, with an average of 46.5 images, compared to an average of 111.5 images showing violent actions by protestors.
From June 3, 2020 to June 5, 2020, protestor and police/military violent actions are shown with nearly equal weight, averaging 25.33 images and 25 images per day respectively. June 6, 2020 is the only day in coverage where police/military violent actions are shown significantly more frequently than protestor violent actions. On this day, police/military members were shown engaging in violent actions in 40 images, compared to 16 images showing protestors engaging in violent actions.
On the last day of the sample period, June 7, 2020, protestor violent actions returned to outweighing police violent actions with 22 and 13 images respectively.