Quadrupe B: How Leftist Social Movements Interact With Media

• In Event: 20861 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 7: Interactions between Movement Actors and Institutional Players

Abstract

Leftist social movements have long held an asymmetric and complex relationship to the press who often diminish movement messaging. What strategies and tactics do social movements use when maneuvering press relationships and aspiring for favorable coverage? And what dispositions to corporate press do contemporary social movements hold that shape these strategies? Drawing from 35 in-depth qualitative interviews with leftist social movements and media personnel spanning eight states in the U.S. South, I reformulate Rucht’s ‘Quadruple A’ framework into a ‘Quadruple B’ framework which elucidates how leftist social movements strategically interact with media in a contemporary media environment: by bracketing, battling, bridging and building.

Author

• Braxton Brewington, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill