215. Name: Madeleine Ceder Title: Storytelling Techniques in Protest Reporting: A Comparative Analysis of Narratives on the Ferguson Unrest by AJE, BBCW and RT Institution: Stockholm University Country: Sweden Date: 2017 Language: English Abstract: As the borders between local and global politics are blurred in the digital media landscape, protesters are in increased rate turning their placards to global broadcasters’ cameras. This research chose the August 2014 unrest in Ferguson as a case study. A quantitative mapping and a comparative analysis of the narrative structure were conducted on 16 days of news bulletins from Al Jazeera English, BBC World News and RT. The results show several differences in the reports. The first concerns the amount of attention given to Ferguson by each broadcaster, where RT gave almost twice the amount of attention as the other two broadcasters. The study also found differences in the sources that each broadcaster used and the way they used violence as an entry-point to construct their narratives. In the case of AJE, the focus was on the effects of violence on society, in BBCW’s narrative the political aspect was of high importance, whereas RT’s narrative emphasized the militarization of U.S. police force. The results imply that global broadcasters offer distinctive narratives, and through different storytelling techniques, they convey different attitudes and morals.
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