How Negative Media Framing of Anti-Status Quo Protests Acts as a Social Control Mechanism: A Socio-Psychological Perspective on Protest Paradigm Framework

Abstract The present article presents a new perspective of interpreting the protest paradigm framework from Media/Communication Studies and its effects on audiences, through the socio-psychological theory of Minority Influence. Existing literature on protest paradigm, how it affects the audience’s perceptions on protest support and mobilization as well as the pathway through which it acts as an ideological mechanism of blocking social change are examined. The theory of Minority Influence is also reviewed with focus on the definition of minorities as non-privileged groups, carriers of innovation, which challenge the existing social arrangements and try to mobilize the audience towards them. A new pathway of examining protest paradigm as a social control mechanism of blocking minorities’ influence is proposed. The applications of this framework and the insights into the ideological function of system justification of the protest paradigm, through discouraging citizens’ support and mobilization towards unconventional forms of political participation are further discussed.