The Screening Protest Project

A form of protest?

One of the methodological challenges we face on the project is when to code a given incident as involving protest. The mental image of people gathered in a public place chanting slogans and holding placards usually comes to mind when protest is mentioned. But our empirical material is rife with examples that encourage us to think differently about the concept. One is the news of 15 October 2015 that artists critique perceived stereotypes in the Homeland television series by writing ‘Homeland is racist’ in the Arabic graffiti they had been hired to paint to make scenes of a Syrian refugee camp look more realistic. One issue on the agenda at this week’s coders meeting will be to agree on whether this news belongs in the sample of news stories analysed in Study 1, which concerns mediated representations in global television news. It is a reminder of why we need both Study 1 and Study 3, about protest and popular culture.

Alexa Robertson