This document analyzes how Brazilian media outlets framed the 2013 protests in Brazil on news websites, blogs, and Twitter. It finds that initially, news websites used more "confrontation" frames but later shifted to more "legitimizing" frames as protest participation grew and demands became more generic and resonant. Blogs emphasized "debate" frames from the start. Twitter news accounts followed public support on Twitter, mirroring trends seen in previous Brazilian protests. The rise of a "rights" frame correlated with increased legitimizing coverage, supporting the hypotheses. Further analysis of frame sponsorship and impact on social movements is recommended.

1. Framing #Vemprarua: The 2013
Brazilian Protests on News
Websites, Blogs And Twitter
Rachel Reis Mourao

2. Vem pra Rua
 Summer of 2013: massive protests in more than 150 cities
encompassing an array of grievances.
 First massive protest since President Collor’s impeachment in
1992
 Bus fare increase, World Cup expenditures, human rights
violations, corruption, etc.

3. Scheufele’s model of framing research

4. Definitions
 Collective action frames: action-oriented sets of beliefs and meanings that
inspire and legitimize the activities and campaigns of a social movement
organization (Benford & Snow, 2000).
 Master frame: not a concept.
 Media: intermediary between SMO’s collective action frames and the public,
including prospective supporters
 “Protest paradigm”: structural biases that produce a pattern of coverage of
social movement actions (Gitlin 1980; McLeod and Hertog 1992; Shoemaker
1984).
 Historical overview of protest coverage in Brazil: media “flip-flop,” legitimizing
protests when they become more powerful.
 Entman & Rojecki (1992): the news grants legitimacy to participation by
movements with little institutionalized power in politics but only so long as they
steer clear of effective political action.

5. Research questions and hypotheses
How did Brazilian media outlets cover the 2013 protests online?
 RQ1: What frames were employed by main media outlets when
covering the 2013 Brazilian protests online?
 RQ2: What frames were employed by bloggers when referring to the
2013 Brazilian protests?
 RQ3: What frames were employed by Twitter users when referring
to the 2013 Brazilian protests?
 H1: The more people participate in protests, the more the media use
“legitimizing” frames when covering them.
 H2: The broader and more resonant the collective action frames, the
more the media use “legitimizing” frames to cover the protests.

6. Method
 Computerized content analysis using the software Crimson-
Hexagon
 Monitors: a) news websites; b) blogs and forums; c) Twitter news
outlets; d) Twitter general.
 Training: a sample was used to train the program on the various
master frames proposed by Hertog and McLeod (2001):
confrontation, riot and debate.
 Algorithm applied the lessons to the large data sets based on the
identification of central concepts (Hertog & McLeod, 2001; Miller &
Riechert, 2001).
 Results were compared with a timeline of the events (H1)
 Hashtags were used as a proxy for the movement’s demands (H2)

7. Results: news websites and blogs

8. Results: Twitter news and general

9. Results

10. So what?
 Brazilian media followed the “protest paradigm” more closely on the
beginning of the events, but migrated to legitimizing frames as
demands became generic and public support increased (H1
supported)
 This is consistent with the literature on media coverage of previous
protests in the country, but in contrast to US theory.
 News stories follow public support on the streets. Twitter news
accounts follow public support on the Twittersphere.
 The rise of the resonant “rights frame” was closely followed by
legitimizing media coverage (H2 supported)
 Blogs emphasized “debate” frames from the beginning, essentially
being used by the social movement organizations to gather support
for the protests.

11. What’s next?
 Software training limited: could not identify the circus frame.
 Future studies on frame sponsorship are needed understand
Brazilian media “flip-flop” behavior. Elites fail to index?
 What is the impact of shifting from issue-specific to generic frames
on the cohesion of social movement organizations?
 Next step: compare the results of media frames analysis to the
collective action frames put forward by the SMOs on blogs and
Twitter.

12. Thank you!