MeToo & TakeAKnee: Gender, Race, & Human Rights News, Framed As Anything But

• In Event: Of Race and Rights

Abstract

Research into television and print news coverage on human rights shows that coverage is extremely limited, and has shown that human rights topics may be being covered without being framed as human rights (Brandle 2017, Brandle 2018). Two areas of human rights that are well-established by treaty law are prohibitions against race- and gender-based discrimination and violence, yet on the occasions these issues are covered by American print and television news, they are usually not covered as human rights. This paper compares television and print coverage of racial and gender-based discrimination issues, including police shootings and related protests and sexual harassment and assault, to explore several issues. This paper uses a human rights perspective to build on the on the growing literatures examining print, television, and social media coverage of race- and gender-based discrimination and violence (Bouzerdan and Whitten-Woodring, Gilchrist, Freelon, McIlwain, and Clark, and Bonilla and Rosa). Furthermore, this paper will explore the relationship between social media movements and broadcast and print outlets’ coverage of race- and gender-based discrimination and violence. When and how did legacy outlets begin covering #blacklivesmatter and #metoo-related issues? How did online campaigns evolve in response to print and broadcast coverage, and how did such evolution impact future print and broadcast coverage?

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Author

• Shawna M. Brandle, Kingsborough Community College - CUNY