Framing Racial (In)Justice in the US News Media: Black Lives Matter, Immigrant Rights, and the Nation-State

This thesis critically examines the dominant narrative constructed in US-based news media about the United States’ institutions of violence, the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM), and the Immigrant Rights (IR) movements. Engaging multiple disciplines across the social science that engage race, immigration, the media, and American politics, the thesis situates the media’s role in racial injustice and nation-state violence against the Black and Immigrant communities. White Supremacy is deeply part of the United States' past and present, and the news media plays a critical role in capturing and framing the challenges to entrenched systemic racism led by social movement activism. The news media is situated in a powerful public position, capable of leading or supporting social justice work as well as further entrenching systems of oppression and injustice. This thesis explores whether the media challenges or reinforces the nation-state’s violent and racist institutions and practices. To operationalize the empirical work, the thesis asks how the news media (de)centers and (de)legitimizes social movements, impacted communities, and the nation-state when reporting on BLM and IR. Two original datasets of 8,742 news articles (for BLM) and 3,372 news articles (for IR), covering 2013 to 2023, are analyzed using machine learning techniques like named entity recognition and semantic networks of text, along with qualitative content analysis of select months as critical case studies. The thesis reveals how news media serves as a governance tool capable of stifling dissent by decentering the racial injustices that legitimize movement tactics and simultaneously centering partisan politics and the nation-state.