Mainstream Media’s Challenges to Protester Legitimacy: Local Newspaper Depictions of Black Lives Matter Demonstrations in Atlanta

This thesis explores the dynamics between mainstream news media and social movements in Atlanta, Georgia, and how protest events are presented by news sources to their audiences. Through a content analysis of 150 Atlanta Journal-Constitution articles written during the Black Lives Matter protests of Summer 2020, I will examine how mainstream news contributes to the maintenance of existing power structures by misrepresenting social movements and their goals. Utilizing critical media lens, I argue that these news stories adhere to the “protest paradigm,” whereby reporting habits work to delegitimize and ostracize protesters, and bolster the belief that protests against police violence should display respectability politics and uphold the “Atlanta Way.” This study will contribute to critical media and social movement scholarship within the body of research focused on Atlanta to challenge existing narratives about protesters and demonstrate the continuing political and social dominance of the Atlanta Way.