Media, protest and the simplification of violence

Black Lives Matter might be the biggest movment in US history, the New York Times recently reported, with polls showing that 15 million to 26 million people in the US have participated in demonstrations over the death of George Floyd and others in recent weeks. Other countries around the world have also seen massive protests since Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis on May 25. Here, César Jiménez-Martínez, Lecturer in Global Media and Communications at Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture, assesses whether media coverage of recent protests follows the ‘protest paradigm’ or whether it is more complex than that.