Cited voices in shared news coverage of election-related protests

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, demands for democratic reform have sparked waves of citizen protests worldwide. These events gained visibility through news coverage and social media sharing, increasing public awareness of both protests and the voices cited in reporting. This study investigates how quoting practices in shared protest coverage reflect power hierarchies and influence protesters’ online visibility. Drawing on corpus-assisted discourse analysis, it explores the news values of Personalisation and Eliteness in English-language news on contested election outcomes in the USA, Iraq, Peru, Chad, Kenya, and Benin (2021–2022). Findings reveal that quoting protesters does not always legitimise their cause; media often redirect focus to other actors or issues. Moreover, political context influences online visibility more than editorial stance. International media tend to align with national constraints, including concerns about protest legitimacy, state control of information, systemic discontent, and weak governmental counter-narratives.