When Black Movements Matter: Controlling Images and Black Lives Matter Protests in Media Attention to U.S. Police Killings

Abstract

This study investigates how the portrayal of Black criminality influences Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and media attention to police-related deaths of Black individuals. While prior work examined how media norms, political contexts, and movement infrastructure influence media attention, little research has questioned whether the perceived worthiness of movement’s claims shapes the capacity of protests to direct attention. Applying scholarship of controlling images, I test how victims’ armed status moderates the effect of BLM protests on media attention to Black policing deaths. Negative binomial regression analysis on coverage of 678 Black Americans killed by police from 2014-2016 in over 300 print media indicates local protests directly increased attention to nearby Black Americans but were moderated by armed status. Neither political contexts nor organizational presence influenced attention, suggesting BLM relied on the discursive power of protests. Findings highlight how controlling images and racialized threats influence movements along a matrix of domination.

Todd Lu

PhD Student

Todd Lu is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology department at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.