Framing Use of Force: An Analysis of News Organizations’ Social Media Posts About Police Shootings

Erin Ash; Yiwei Xu; Alexandria Jenkins; Chenjerai Kumanyika

doi:10.1177/1931243119850239

Framing Use of Force: An Analysis of News Organizations’ Social Media Posts About Police Shootings

Erin Ash, Yiwei Xu, Alexandria Jenkins, Chenjerai Kumanyika

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This research is a systematic investigation of reporting on police use of force incidents by news organizations through social media. A sample of Tweets and Facebook posts appearing on the social media accounts of top news outlets (N = 500) over the course of a year were analyzed. Rationalizations for use of force, characterizations of police and victims, and contextual framing were examined. Results revealed medium-based differences in challenging police actions as well as demonstrated the limitations of short-form social media in communicating news on complex issues. Implications of these findings for theory and journalistic practice are discussed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	93-107
Number of pages	15
Journal	Electronic News
Volume	13
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1931243119850239
State	Published - Jun 2019

Keywords

framing
journalism
news
police
social media

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Information Systems
Communication

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10.1177/1931243119850239

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abstract = "This research is a systematic investigation of reporting on police use of force incidents by news organizations through social media. A sample of Tweets and Facebook posts appearing on the social media accounts of top news outlets (N = 500) over the course of a year were analyzed. Rationalizations for use of force, characterizations of police and victims, and contextual framing were examined. Results revealed medium-based differences in challenging police actions as well as demonstrated the limitations of short-form social media in communicating news on complex issues. Implications of these findings for theory and journalistic practice are discussed.",

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author = "Erin Ash and Yiwei Xu and Alexandria Jenkins and Chenjerai Kumanyika",

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AU - Xu, Yiwei

AU - Jenkins, Alexandria

AU - Kumanyika, Chenjerai

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2019.

PY - 2019/6

Y1 - 2019/6

N2 - This research is a systematic investigation of reporting on police use of force incidents by news organizations through social media. A sample of Tweets and Facebook posts appearing on the social media accounts of top news outlets (N = 500) over the course of a year were analyzed. Rationalizations for use of force, characterizations of police and victims, and contextual framing were examined. Results revealed medium-based differences in challenging police actions as well as demonstrated the limitations of short-form social media in communicating news on complex issues. Implications of these findings for theory and journalistic practice are discussed.

AB - This research is a systematic investigation of reporting on police use of force incidents by news organizations through social media. A sample of Tweets and Facebook posts appearing on the social media accounts of top news outlets (N = 500) over the course of a year were analyzed. Rationalizations for use of force, characterizations of police and victims, and contextual framing were examined. Results revealed medium-based differences in challenging police actions as well as demonstrated the limitations of short-form social media in communicating news on complex issues. Implications of these findings for theory and journalistic practice are discussed.

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Framing Use of Force: An Analysis of News Organizations’ Social Media Posts About Police Shootings

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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