662 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION 38 Globalization and the Occupy Movement: Media Framing of Economic Protest Amy Skonieczny and Giuliano Morse INTRODUCTION In September, 2011, a protest movement called Occupy Wall Street began in New York’s Zuccotti Park in the heart of New York’s financial district. The call to ‘occupy’ Wall Street was initiated by Adbusters, a Canadian magazine, which, in July, created a hash tag on Twitter, #OCCUPYWALLSTREET, and published a poster showing a ballerina dancing on the back of the muscular sculptured bull near Wall Street in Manhattan (Yardley, 2011). The magazine called for an occupation of Wall Street on 17 September in response to the global economic crisis and the rise of inequality and corporate influence on democracy (Kaste, 2011). The protest in September quickly spread across the country and around the world with small encampments of protestors occupying public space and drawing attention to social and economic inequality and greed as well as corporate power and influence in government. The Occupy Wall Street slogan, ‘We are the 99 percent’ captured the public’s attention 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 662 and had broad appeal based on the inequitable wealth distribution between the top one per cent and everyone else. Protestors reflected a myriad of demands and concerns, from wanting a greater budget for education and healthcare to denouncing the income inequality gap in America. There was also anger stemming from the government’s response to the economic crisis, and the lack of accountability for the role of financial institutions in both causing and profiting from the economic crisis (Shafa, 2012). As scholar, Ruth Milkman (2012) states, ‘Although some observers were perplexed by the movement’s lack of conventional “demands” or a single “message”, Occupy Wall Street captured the imagination of the wider public. Its deceptively simple slogan, “We are the 99 percent!” raised popular awareness of the issue of economic inequality, stoking the moral outrage of ordinary citizens and transforming the national political conversation’ (2012: 14). As protests spread from New York’s Zuccotti park across the nation to over 600 US communities by 1 29-Apr-14 3:37:13 PM GLOBALIZATION AND THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT October, and around the world to over 80 countries and 95 cities by 15 October, protestors made it clear that the indignation against economic inequality and economic injustice were deeply felt and shared worldwide (Weigel et al., 2011). The Occupy Wall Street movement connected to other protest movements for social change around the world that had also appeared in 2011, particularly the Arab Spring protests and revolutions. These movements may have had different purposes, but they shared some common elements about political representation and growing economic inequality. Occupy Wall Street protestors also referenced the encampments of central squares in Spain. The protests of the ‘indignatos’ in Spain targeted similar issues in a different manner. ‘The Spanish protests brought together a wide array of social and economic complaints – regarding debt, housing, and education, among others – but their indignation was clearly directed at a political system incapable of addressing these issues’ (Hardt and Negri, 2011). Indeed, strings of social uprisings occurred throughout 2011, such as the occupation of Syntagma Square in Athens, and the Israeli tent encampments for economic justice. The global context of the Occupy Wall Street movement can be understood as a succession of social uprisings representing a growing idea that citizens want a more democratic society. As Hardt and Negri (2011) stated, one obvious message is that the ‘bankers and finance industries in no way represent us: what is good for Wall Street is certainly not good for the country (or the world)’. However, despite the broad appeal of the initial Occupy Wall Street movement, by the end of November, most of the US Occupy encampments had been shut down by police and city officials, and a movement that had worldwide appeal suddenly shifted out of the global spotlight. Given that the issues of inequality, economic justice and frustration with big bank bailouts remained, why did the movement rise and fall so quickly from public view? While the issues that gave birth to 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 663 663 the movement had not changed or improved, the overall US public image of the movement had shifted from supportive and sympathetic to inconvenienced, concerned about public safety and/or disinterested. In this chapter, we find that this shift aligns with the dominant portrayal of the movement by mainstream media sources such as CNN. We also find that mainstream media framing of the Occupy Wall Street protests mirrored nearly identical media framing of past economic protests of neo-liberal globalization. In order to examine the effect of media framing on Occupy Wall Street, we conducted a study of CNN coverage during the eight weeks of the Occupy movement using video from CNN.org, and examined the dominant, largely negative, frames used to portray the movement to the public. We then support our finding by utilizing an online program called StatNews, developed by UC Berkeley that analyses large newspaper databases for key words and co-occurring terms in order to include a larger sample of media coverage of the Occupy Movement (see statnews.org). While social media played an important and significant role in the movement, mainstream media still has a significant influence on the public. Moreover, mainstream media outlets like CNN reflect a pattern of status quo bias in their coverage of protest movements. Indeed, the CNN framing of the Occupy Movement closely resembled mainstream media framing of the WTO Seattle protests and the subsequent protests against the World Bank and IMF challenging aspects of neo-liberal globalization. While globalization can facilitate commonalties in social justice movements and link protests from around the world, a status- quo bias in mainstream media coverage of protests has also developed over time, and the recycled frames of social protest raise familiar and disparaging associations that limit and constrain a broader discourse of economic justice and social change. The chapter proceeds as follows: in the next section of the chapter, we present the scholarly literature on media framing of 29-Apr-14 3:37:13 PM 664 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION protest movements; we then examine media coverage of Occupy Wall Street. Next, we present our study of CNN video coverage of Occupy Wall Street from September through November 2011; we then conduct a key word search for ‘occupy’ in the statnews program and analyse the results. Finally we analyse our findings and compare them to past research on media framing of the global justice movement. We conclude with implications of our findings in a context of globalization and an increasingly eruptive global protest culture. MEDIA FRAMING AND PROTEST MOVEMENTS Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw introduced the theory of media framing in 1972 in their study of the role that media played in the 1968 Presidential campaign in the US (McCombs and Shaw, 1972). Shaw and McCombs claim that since the mass media is a major source of political information for voters, the media can shape public opinion by bringing particular issues to the forefront. ‘The mass media set the agenda for each political campaign, influencing the salience of attitudes toward the political issues’ (Arnold, 2009). Media framing infers that media has a powerful effect in giving certain issues legitimacy by altering public opinion. ‘The study of media framing can help us identify and examine crucial points in the opinion change process where powerful effects are taking place’ (Reese, Gandy and Grant, 2001). Indeed, social movements and protests are frequently the subject of media framing research.1 Scholars have found that media coverage impacts how the protests are represented to the public and often limits the ability of protesters to represent their own message as it is filtered through already existing, dominant, ‘status quo’ frames. Sidney Tarrow (1994) has argued that a movement can use media to gain attention, but often struggles against the power of the media to 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 664 shape perceptions. Jules Boykoff (2006) goes further and states that mass media has actually played a major role in suppressing dissent in the United States due to the unfavourable way the media covers social protests. He finds that ‘While dissidents are sometimes able to frame issues and grievances in a manner satisfactory to them, they are more often frustrated by what they deem inadequate – and sometimes even derisive – mass-media coverage’ (2006: 203). Monica Brasted (2005) claims that negative media framing follows in part from journalistic style reporting which emphasizes a narrative style (story) while claiming a balanced approach. Because protest ‘stories’ are commonly framed as disrupting the status quo, the ‘balanced’ reporting ends up favouring a ‘status quo’ bias even if the media coverage reflects equal coverage time for both sides. As she states, ‘When it comes to social movements, the news frames define the group and its goals to the public. Movements are typically seen as disrupting the status quo, and their actions are contrasted with the efforts of societal authorities to restore order. Reporters rarely try to explain the reasons for the movements’ (2005: 383–4). Without an explanation, Gaye Tuchman (1978) found that the public is more likely to gravitate towards a ‘status quo’ explanation because it is more familiar to them. Because official sources are also more commonly used by journalists, a ‘public official’ bias reinforces that ‘status quo’ message. It also contrasts with the coverage of the ‘protest side’ where ‘un-official’ sources are used and often misinterpreted or misrepresented by the media. Brasted found that news coverage of protest is shown to vary from the coverage of the official status quo in a number of important ways. As she states, ‘there is a tendency [by journalists] to focus on the protestors’ appearances rather than their issues, to emphasize violence rather than social criticism, to focus on conflict with the police rather than their chosen targets, and to downplay their effectiveness’ (1978: 384). Thus, ‘equal time’ does not mean equal access to delivering a message or position to the public. 29-Apr-14 3:37:13 PM GLOBALIZATION AND THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT Douglas McLeod and James Hertog (1998) refer to the common framing of protest movements as a ‘protest paradigm’. The protest paradigm has become so common in media framing that it is repeated across a wide variety of protests, movements, issueareas and geographical locations. The ‘protest paradigm’ consists of four categories that perpetuate media’s ‘status quo’ bias. The first category is narrative structure of news. Journalists make sense of events by putting it in the form of a story. This is more easily digested by the public and in many ways is a very ‘human’ response to making sense of the world. However, when it comes to coverage of protest stories, the kinds of ‘story lines’ or plots that make sense are antagonistic ones. The media often represents the protests as ‘clashes’ with police, or ‘disruptions’ to societal norms. The ‘story’ is about social unrest, disorder and often chaos and violence. In this story, the protesters are rarely the victims, and the police are often represented as attempting to ‘restore’ order or ‘resume’ normal life in the face of disruption to commutes, traffic or business. The second category of the ‘protest paradigm’ is reliance on official sources and official definitions, data and assessment of impact. This category reinforces the ‘status quo’ bias even more strongly because many protest movements lack an ‘official spokesperson’ or leader and at times, they may even lack a single message or demand. This leads the media to overrely on the official message and often struggle to find an appropriate counterpoint to the official position. The third category of the ‘protest paradigm’ is the frequent use of public opinion to present the effectiveness of the protests or movement. Bystanders are interviewed, public opinion polls are conducted and stories of regular people affected by the protests are frequently referenced by media. McLeod and Hertog found that this often ends up reflecting the main ‘status quo’ narrative of violence, inconvenience or confusion about the message, but now sanctioned by the public, the protests are even more likely to be seen 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 665 665 as an isolated minority and far outside of mainstream public views. By validating the opinion of a public which often lacks the information about the protest or movement because of the media, the media ends up perpetuating the bias. The final category of the ‘protest paradigm’ is the strategy of framing the protestors as deviant. As Brasted describes, ‘This includes techniques that de-legitimize, marginalize and demonize the protestors. Strategies can include focusing on internal divisions of a movement, making light of movement language, the dress, age, and goals of a movement’s members, and showing protestors as deviant, unpatriotic, or unrepresentative of normal Americans’ (2005: 386). The deviant frame (or the illegitimate frame as we call it) is the most common way that media contributes to delegitimizing protest stories and preventing a constructive message of change from coming through to the mass public. By using the protest paradigm to frame protest stories, the media reinforces the status quo bias and makes it very difficult for the movements to have a broader impact of change on society. The protest paradigm appears to be at work no matter the issue area or concern of the protests themselves. In recent research alone, the ‘protest paradigm’ appeared to impact media coverage of the anti-war movement (Cooper, 2002; Heaney and Rojas, 2006; Peng, 2008) just as similarly as it impacted coverage of the economic protests resulting from globalization and global recession (Boykoff, 2006; Kutz-Flamenbaum, Staggenborg, and Duncan, 2012). In our own research, we found consistent use of similar negative media frames between the Occupy Wall Street movement and the global justice protests of the late 1999s and early 2000s. In both cases, the ‘protest paradigm’ impacted the movement’s ability to reach a broader audience despite widespread economic concerns about the shifting global economy and rising inequality and poverty. In the next section, we examine the extent of US media coverage of Occupy Wall Street over the threemonth period of ‘occupations’ of public space. 29-Apr-14 3:37:14 PM 666 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT Data provided by The Project for Excellence in Journalism reveals that in the early days of the Occupy Wall Street movement, September to early October, there was little to no media coverage by major outlets like CNN, Fox or MSNBC. Occupy protestors demanded more mainstream media coverage in the late weeks of September but found it difficult to present their story. Patrick Bruner, an organizer for the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York voiced a popular, general sentiment to the New York Times: ‘in its initial coverage I saw almost nothing that talked about our reason for being there, and that trend has largely continued’ (Stelter, 2011b). Alicia Sheppard, an ombudsman for NPR, commented on the same week as Bruner stating that ‘most news coverage of Occupy movement hasn’t been about the issues, it’s about who’s up and who’s down [similar] to the “horse race” style of coverage prevalent in political campaigns’ (Stelter, 2011b). Because of this critique, a reaction to the lack of coverage began to grow amongst traditional media. On 22 September, five days into the Occupy protest at Zuccotti Park, Keith Olbermann asked on his cable network TV show: ‘Why isn’t any major news outlet covering this? If that’s a Tea Party protest in front of Wall Street about Ben Bernanke putting stimulus funds into it, it’s the lead story on every network newscast. How is that disconnect possible in this country today with so many different outlets and so many different ways of transmitting news’ (Olbermann, 2011). His guest, author Will Bunch, suggested the disconnect was caused in part by the news networks being out of touch with the pain of the 25 million Americans who are unemployed (Olberman, 2011). As protestors voiced their opinions about lack of media coverage throughout the 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 666 month of September, a few major media outlets, mainly the New York Times and Aljazeera English, began to expose the lack of media coverage by other major media outlets. By early October, there was a surge of complaints from Occupy protestors claiming that media coverage was damaging their reputation. At this point, many news organizations rebutted by boosting coverage of the protests. Growth of media coverage was especially evident on cable news where media increased twofold. For example, MSNBC deployed Dylan Ratigan and Tamron Hall who were ‘taking it to the streets’ representing some of the first camera crews to report live from the protests (Shapiro, 2011). As MSNBC began to increase coverage so did most other major networks, including CNN and Fox. Fox news sent leading correspondent Geraldo Rivera to cover the encampment in New York (Rivera, 2011). Major media outlets seemed to have responded to the complaints of Occupy Wall Street protestors, or at the very least to the accusations made by the New York Times and Huffington Post, that media networks were not adequately covering the Occupy movement. However, as media coverage grew, so did negative coverage of the Occupy Wall Street camps. Especially in the month of October, media coverage began to frame the movement in a more negative light as it started to focus on the protestors themselves, life in the camps and the impact on the cities where the camps were located. Danny Schecter, who covered Occupy for AlJazeera, wrote in his blog on the 28 November about a general trend in media coverage of the movement, stating that: one of the oldest patterns of media coverage can be summed up this way: First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they realize you are a story and fall in love. So they build you up but then, all at once, they tear you down. You may have not changed, but they have, addicted as they are to keep coming up with shifting story 29-Apr-14 3:37:14 PM GLOBALIZATION AND THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT lines, more to fight their own boredom and fear of tune-out than the validity or importance of the topic. (Schechter, 2012) marches through New York’s financial district (‘Occupy Wall Street,’ 2011). Thousands of American citizens had been arrested for protesting, most notably were the 700 people arrested while protesting on the Brooklyn Bridge. Major social and political figures had spoken for and against the movement (‘Let us go!’, 2011). Furthermore, by 15 October the movement had diffused to over 80 countries and became an international movement. The following week of 19 October, 2011 PEW research produced results depicting an increase in coverage and public interest in the Occupy movement. Media coverage increased to 10 per cent, up from 7 per cent the previous week and just 2 per cent the week before that as shown in Table 38.2 Growing Attention, 2011. At that time, PEW conducted a sample survey to gather public interest in the Occupy movement (Growing Attention, 2011). They found that 20–30 per cent of Americans were closely following news about the Occupy protests or the issues they In many ways, coverage of the Occupy movement followed this pattern. The complaints previously discussed over the lack of media coverage initially led to an increase in coverage that can be seen in polling data provided by PEW. The Occupy Wall Street protests took seven per cent of the nation’s news coverage by 12 October 2011 as shown in Table 38.1 Wall Street Protests, 2011. This was an increase from the two per cent of coverage of the movement in the prior weeks. Before 12 October the coverage was so minimal that PEW did not even quantify coverage of the movement in its weekly survey of 53 different news outlets (Stelter, 2011a). By 12 October, the Occupy movement had gained major momentum on the ground. Several major organizations, including New York City’s largest labour unions, joined Occupy Wall Street for multiple Table 38.1 667 Interest in News Coverage of Occupy Wall Street Protests, October 12, 2011 News Interest vs. News Coverage News Interest News Coverage Economy 27 15 Steve Jobs 14 10 2012 elections 12 18 Amanda Knox 10 7 Afghanistan 8 4 Wall Street protests 7 7 News interest shows the percentage of people who say they followed this story most closely, Pew Research Centre for the People & the Press, Oct. 6–9, 2011. News coverage shows the percentage of news coverage devoted to each story, Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, Oct. 3–9, 2011. 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 667 29-Apr-14 3:37:14 PM 668 Table 38.2 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION Interest in News Coverage of Occupy Wall Street Protests, October 19, 2011 News Interest vs. News Coverage News Interest News Coverage Economy 20 8 Wall Street protests 18 10 2012 elections 15 19 Jobs, deficit debate 11 6 Plot to kill diplomat 4 13 Trade agreements 1 N/A* News interest shows the percentage of people who say they followed this story most closely, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Oct. 13–16, 2011. News coverage shows the percentage of news coverage devoted to each story, Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, Oct. 10–16, 2011. *News coverage of the latest U.S. trade agreements was not measured as a discrete story last week. were bringing forward such as unemployment, jobs, the deficit and the US economy overall. This was a 17 per cent increase from the previous week but still reflected less interest than other major news stories of the day as shown in Table 38.3 Growing Attention. The evidence acquired by PEW for the week of 16 October shows that the Occupy movement did manage to reach a somewhat notable amount of coverage for a short period of time. However, media coverage did not continue to follow this upward trend; in fact this was the peak of media coverage. There are two factors to take into account for the temporary increase in coverage, pressure from sympathetic media outlets to bring attention to the lack of coverage, a growth in Table 38.3 Watching the News on Occupy Wall Street Protests Interest in Wall Street Protests % following anti-Wall Street protests very closely Total 18–49 50+ Republican Democrat Independent Oct 6–9 % Oct 13–16 % 17 16 18 12 17 19 22 17 27 21 27 20 PEW RESEARCH CENTER Oct. 13–16, 2011 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 668 29-Apr-14 3:37:14 PM GLOBALIZATION AND THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT the movement itself resulting in more possible stories, and finally the increased violence that occurred as cities made the decision to use police to remove protestors from public space. However, how the media represented the Occupy movement is more important than simply whether (or not), and by how much, media was covering the movement. In the next section, we examine how media coverage framed the movement and the effect of the rise in negative framing over time. DOMINANT MEDIA FRAMES OF OCCUPY WALL STREET In order to examine how media framed the Occupy Wall Street movement, we analysed CNN video coverage using CNN.org’s online video archive over the eight week period from September to November. We used a key word search for the phrase ‘Occupy’ in the CNN archive, and then narrowed the search further to only video clips pertaining to the Occupy Wall Street movement to compile a comprehensive list of videos during this period. By selecting one of the most frequented media outlets, CNN, and utilizing the most common form of media, video, our research claims to identify results that likely depict a larger general trend in media. We also chose CNN because it ranks highest in terms of cumulative viewers – individuals who tune in for at least a minute over the course of an extended period, such as a week or a month. According to Pew’s annual media report, under this measurement, CNN continued to lead its competitors among viewers who tuned in for at least one minute over the course of an average month in 2011, with 99.4 million viewers. Fox came in second with 82.8 million, followed by MSNBC with 80.7 million (Holcomb, Mitchell and Rosenstiel, 2012). Our study inductively found four dominant frames that characterized CNN’s coverage of Occupy Wall Street that we labelled 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 669 669 ‘Police/Security’, ‘Illegitimate’, ‘Protest’ and ‘Socio-Economic Critique’. We then quantified how much coverage was dedicated to each frame on each given date to demonstrate not only the most dominant frames, but also how the frames utilized by CNN changed over the eight week period. In the next section, we present a description of each of the categorical frames found in our research. Police/Security Frame This category was used for clips that framed the protests as a matter of police confrontation and threat to security. The key terms used to categorize this frame are ‘police’, ‘anger’, ‘arrests’, ‘confrontation’, ‘violence’, ‘security’, and ‘riot’. Regardless of whether a clip was blaming protestors or police as the aggressor, the frame emphasized that the movement created violence and threatened stability and security. The narrative described in these clips is that the Occupy protests are a factor in social unrest and have evoked the authority of police forces in order to attempt to return stability and safety to the public. At no point did clips within this frame discuss the narrative of the social critique being advocating by the protestors. For example, CNN videos in this frame ran headlines such as ‘Police, “Occupy” protesters clash’, ‘Occupy Rome protests turn violent’ or ‘Riot police vs. Occupy protesters’. Illegitimate Frame This category was used for footage that questioned the legitimacy of the movement. These video clips contain stories that ridiculed the movement, mostly by stating that there was no goal, and portraying the protestors as outcasts of society. Unlike the first categorical frame, these clips did not describe the movement as violent, however, the social critique of the protest itself was also not found in these clips. The key terms used in this framing category were ‘hippies’, ‘inconvenience’, ‘tea party’, ‘mockery’, ‘pot’ and 29-Apr-14 3:37:14 PM 670 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION ‘bums’. For example, certain headlines in this category included, ‘Stein: Occupy Wall Street full of “bums”’, ‘Wall Street protests just inconvenience?’ and ‘What does Occupy Wall Street stand for?’ Protest Frame This category framed the movement in a more neutral light. Clips placed in this category predominately comprised either discussion pieces or logistical aspects of the protests. CNN correspondents portrayed the complexity of differing views, often switching between multiple interviews of protestors, celebrities, politicians, and sociologists. This category also included logistical coverage of the movement. These clips discussed where the movement was located, roughly how many people were involved and the day-to-day life in the camps. In this categorical frame the social critique being advanced by the movement was evident, however still marginalized when present. The key words used for this category were ‘discussing’, ‘media coverage’, ‘social movements’, ‘communicate’, and ‘spreads’. For example a few of these headlines include: ‘Occupy Wall Street’ ‘protest spreads’, ‘Unions join Occupy Wall Street’, and ‘Supplies going to Wall St. protesters’. Socio/Economic Critique Frame This category comprised coverage of the economic critique put forward by the Occupy protestors. It is vital because it shows the amount of coverage that actually discussed the reason for and possible goals of the Occupy movement. Key words for this framing category were ‘economic’, ‘disparity’, ‘wealth’, ‘gap’, ‘1 percent’, ‘inequality’, ‘poverty’, and ‘corporate’. Often the video clips portrayed interviews with influential figures, like Colin Powell or Howard Buffet, and discussed the economics and politics of income inequality in America. Most importantly the narrative 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 670 of these clips was an investigation into the critiques brought forward by the Occupiers. These clips included headlines such as: ‘Paul: Economy biased against the poor’, ‘Heated debate on the Occupy movement’ and ‘Powell: Leaders must address wealth gap’. FINDINGS OF MEDIA ANALYSIS OF CNN.COM Our study found a stark shift in the dominant frames used by CNN to cover the Occupy movement over the eight week period. Over time, the dominant and most frequent frame utilized by CNN shifted from ‘illegitimate’, dominant from 19 September – 6 October, to ‘Protest’, dominant from 10–20 October, to finally ‘police/security’, which escalated in usage from 20 October onwards. The results from our study show that CNN video coverage was mostly framing the movement as ‘illegitimate’ and ‘police/security’ except for a brief ten-day period. In the graph in Table 38.4, below, the trend of media framing by CNN.com is shown over time. On 20 October, the ‘police/security’ frame increased substantially and within a few weeks, most of the Occupy encampments were shut down by city officials and media coverage dissipated shortly afterwards (see Table 38.4). While the ‘Police/Security’ frame increased dramatically on 20 October, this was not primarily in response to forcible removal of the camps by police. The first forcible removal of protestors from an Occupy camp by police occurred on 11 November in Nova Scotia, Canada (Arrests as Halifax cops evict Occupy protestors, 2011) although some cities had unsuccessfully attempted to remove protestors in the weeks prior. Three days later, on 14 November, a coordinated crackdown by cities using police forces cleared the camps in several cities around the world including Zuccotti Park in New York, Oakland, Oregon, Denver and Zurich (Lambert, 2011). Throughout the last few weeks of November, the media coverage of violent clashes increased as police 29-Apr-14 3:37:14 PM GLOBALIZATION AND THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT Table 38.4 671 Framing Trends over Time by CNN.com 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 Police/Security Illegitimate scuttled with protestors, struggled to keep the camps cleared from public spaces, and increasingly resorted to violence against even peaceful demonstrators as city officials grew impatient with the cost and logistical challenges of keeping protestors out of downtown areas.2 In part the increase in the ‘police/violence’ frame justified the use of force to clear public spaces and remove the camp. Increasingly the media emphasized the safety concerns surrounding the camps and the rise in violence and crime in the downtown areas. This was often seen in news reports days before police raids of the camps took place. For example, in downtown Oakland, CA, local media reported on increased violence, crime and even a homicide that took place near the camps in the days before the police cleared the park (Oakland police issue another Cease and Desist order to Occupy camp, 2011). As the San Francisco Examiner reported the day before the police raid on the Oakland Occupy camp, ‘Merchants 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 671 ov N 9- ov N 26 A Protest 2- ct -O ct O 19 - ct 12 - O ct O 5- ep -S 28 ep 21 -S 14 - Se p 0 Socio-Economic Critique and residents have issued calls for the camp’s removal, citing ongoing problems with vandalism, crime and lost business in the downtown area’ (Oakland police issue another Cease and Desist order to Occupy camp, 2011). In addition to the overall frequency of negative frames of the Occupy movement by CNN, the graph in Table 38.4 also shows that the ‘Socio-economic critique’ frame was the least occurring frame in CNN’s coverage. Even when not portrayed as ‘violent’ or ‘disruptive’, the socio-economic critique that Occupy was attempting to deliver was overwhelmed by logistics of the camps or locations of the movements. The message of the socio-economic critique frame rarely made it to CNN. Similar to the protest paradigm, CNN’s framing of the Occupy movement set the terms of debate around the ‘status quo’ thus delegitimizing the movement rather than presenting both sides of the debate. In addition to our analysis of videos from CNN.com, we also utilized the StatNews 29-Apr-14 3:37:15 PM 672 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION website run by UC Berkeley to see if our findings matched the co-occurring terms present in a much larger data-set of media coverage of Occupy. The StatNews program is a web-based program that is capable of large text searching of major newspapers for co-occurring words and allows for a Table 38.5 StatNews results of top co-occurring words with the word ‘Occupy’ in 2011 20110700, 20120700 Articles total Articles containing Occurrences all words Occurrences target 65118 276 371422 276 Associated words protesters police protests seattle protest wall arrested oakland camp street park latest la developments deadline nyc eviction dc movement port clear city arrest olympia tents boston college site march arrests 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 672 67 47 39 34 24 24 23 23 21 21 16 15 13 13 12 12 11 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 quick snapshot of the most common words associated with a given search term. Our query searched for the top co-occurring words with the word ‘Occupy’ in all associated press news coverage of the three month period September to November 2011. The results correlated with our top findings of CNN’s coverage of the movement (see Table 38.5). The StatNews query found that the word ‘Occupy’ occurred in 276 newspaper articles in 2011. It then lists the top results of co-occurring words in terms of frequency. It found that the word ‘protestors’ was the most commonly co-occurring word with ‘Occupy’ and was found in 67 of the articles. ‘Police’ was the next most common co-occurring word found together in 47 articles. Some of the words are closely related and generally mean the same thing and thus could be placed under one representative frame. If placed in the categorical frames we found in our CNN analysis, the results demonstrate similar findings. The most frequent co-occurring words with ‘Occupy’ were ‘protesters/protest/protests’ (our protest frame) and ‘police/arrested/ Oakland’ (police/security frame) and ‘Seattle’ (which arguably could refer to any of the top three frames (protest, police/ security, and/or illegitimate). In fact, three of the top eight terms refer to the ‘police/ security frame’; this is shown using the terms ‘police’, ‘arrests’ and ‘Oakland’.3 Interestingly, the fourth most common co-occurring word is ‘Seattle’ referring back to the WTO protests in 1999 but more broadly indicating the global social justice movement that mobilized against neo-liberal globalization through a series of worldwide protests often targeting meetings of the World Bank/IMF and WTO. The media framing of the Seattle protests and global justice movement similarly used negative frames to portray the movement as will be discussed more in the next section. By associating ‘Occupy’ with ‘Seattle’, the media framing effect reestablishes this negative association and 29-Apr-14 3:37:15 PM GLOBALIZATION AND THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT Table 38.6 673 StatNews Results of Top Co-occurring Words as Media Frames 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 38% 33% 10% 12% 1% 0% –10% Police/Security Illegitimate further delegitimizes the Occupy movement. By comparing our findings with previous research on media framing of protest movements, we can further demonstrate that the status quo bias of mainstream media often marginalizes and delegitimizes social movements. It is to this historical comparison that we now turn. MEDIA FRAMING AND SOCIAL PROTEST: ‘ANTI-GLOBALIZATION’ AND ‘ANARCHY’ In 1999 and early 2000, public protests countering globalization and raising concern about economic justice targeted the major world economic institutions of the WTO, IMF and World Bank. In Seattle, over 50,000 protesters surprised the city and derailed the 1999 WTO meetings. This garnered substantial media attention. However, similarly to the Occupy protests, the ‘anti-globalization movement’ (as it came to be derisively called by the 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 673 Protest Socio-Economic Critique media) faced negative media framing that prevented the movement from gaining more widespread support. This negative framing by the media continued as the protests spread to the IMF/World Bank meetings in April 2000. Indeed, it seemed that wherever protests emerged, media framing of the movement as violent, illegitimate and irrelevant followed. Jules Boykoff (2006) conducted a media framing analysis of the initial protests by the global justice movement in Seattle and Washington, DC and found nearly identical frames to the ones we found in our analysis of the Occupy protests and mainstream media. He examined a two week period surrounding both major globalization protests in Seattle in 1999 and Washington, DC four months later. He used Lexus/Nexus to conduct an analysis of six major newspapers and five major network television stations for the dominant frames used in portraying the protests. Boykoff found five dominant frames of the movement in the media. He labelled them: ‘violence frame’, ‘disruption frame’, ‘freak frame’, ‘ignorance frame’ and ‘amalgamation 29-Apr-14 3:37:15 PM 674 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION of grievances frame’. Boykoff defines the frames the following way: the ‘violence frame’ refers to violent clashes, vandalism, the potential for violence, or even the lack of violence in news reporting. The ‘disruption frame’ ‘operated at two levels: (1) the disruption of the scheduled meetings of the WTO, World Bank, and IMF, and (2) the general disruption of the lives of regular, law-abiding (and nonprotesting) citizens’ (2006: 214). In this case, disrupting the meetings was the stated goal of the protestors and so it follows that this frame was dominant in media coverage. Here there is a divergence with Occupy Wall Street since the ‘disruption’ of official meetings was not a goal. In our analysis, we put disruption of everyday life and inconvenience in the ‘security/police frame’. The ‘freak frame’ aligns with our ‘illegitimate’ frame and focuses on the appearance of the protestors, their non-mainstream values, or presented them as outliers in society. The ‘ignorance’ frame focused on the inexperience, youth or uninformed nature of the protestors. Similar to our ‘illegitimate’ frame, it presented them as unable to offer a reasonable critique or as attending a protest ‘just to protest’ rather than Table 38.7 really understanding the issues of free trade or financial liberalization. Finally, the ‘grievances claim’ focused on the mixed message of the protestors and the wide range of issues that made any clear demand impossible. This frame is similar to our social/economic critique in that about 50 per cent of coverage in this category was either value-neutral or positive regarding the multiplicity and diversity of issues and 50 per cent was negative regarding lack of clear message or the inability to make any ‘real demands’. In combining data from both the IMF and WTO protests, Boykoff found that the violence frame made up more than 50 per cent of total coverage and reports in the media. The disruption frame made up the second most common framing of the protests at 47 per cent (see Table 38.7). In terms of difference between television (image-heavy) and newspaper reporting, Boykoff found that ‘while 50% of all [newpaper] press accounts featured the Violence Frame, nearly 70% of television segments focused on the ostensibly violent protests. As for the Disruption Frame, newspapers used the frame 40% of the time while television news used it in 53% of its segments (2006: 225). Overall Framing of Seattle and DC Globalization Protests 60% 50% 40% 30% 59% 47% 20% 39% 26% 10% 19% 0% –10% 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 674 Violence Frame Disruption Frame Unclear Grievances Ignorance Freak Frame 29-Apr-14 3:37:16 PM GLOBALIZATION AND THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT The five frames found in Boykoff’s research help explain why the coverage of the Occupy protests felt familiar. Indeed, very similar framing was deployed – violence/police, freak/illegitimate, disruption/ protest as well as a common complaint by the media that the movement lacked a ‘clear’ message. While any protest wants media attention, it is evident that this attention comes with a heavy price. As Boykoff states, ‘The news media – through framing practices – set the parameters of acceptable public discourse. Voices that fall outside the range of acceptable discourse are occasionally permitted space on the mass-mediatized terrain, but their price of admission is often subjection to mass-media deprecation’ (2006: 227). He also acknowledges that this is not intentional but that ‘journalistic norms and values – such as personalization, dramatization, fragmentation and the authorityorder bias – affect what is deemed news and how that news is framed. Adherence to these norms and values – a sign of journalistic professionalism – often results in deprecatory coverage of participants in the [protest movements]’ (2006: 228). In all, the marginalization of the global justice movement by the mainstream media set up a historical precedent that even with the evolution of new media and protest tactics proved difficult to overcome and easily replicated to tell the story of Occupy Wall Street. In another study of media coverage of protest Hertog and McLeod (2001) use a similar methodology to our CNN analysis to explain an anarchist protest in Minneapolis. Their case study analyses newspaper coverage, television coverage and publications by the anarchists themselves. They identify five frames, ‘the riot’, ‘confrontation’, ‘protest’, ‘circus’ and ‘debate’. The factors that distinguished these frames are, ‘the nature of the conflict portrayed, metaphors and narratives, the emphasis or lack of social critique that the anarchists were promoting, how the anarchists were portrayed and the portrayal of police’ (Hertog and McLeod, 157) By analysing headlines and content, this study concluded again that the most common 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 675 675 frame was that of riot and police confrontation. ‘The typical narrative began with a relatively calm protest march, degenerating into illegal or aggressive behavior by anarchists, subsequently riot troops were called in and the violence was put down, but the threat of future anarchist action remained’ (Hertog and McLeod, 157). The riot frame revolved around conflict between police and anarchists. Hertog and McLeod go on to explain how the media coverage showed anarchist leaders advising marchers on how to deal with mace, and the police on how to use their sticks appropriately on protestors. This sets the terms of debate as a conflict. As the authors state, ‘The anarchists’ social critique was not an important focus of coverage; in many cases, it was omitted from the story. The anarchists were treated as combatants but not as thoughtful social critics’ (157). In all, it appears to be a common and reccurring use of frames by media to depict particularly left-leaning protests and social movements as violent and illegitimate. The reuse of the frames in the case of Occupy only enhances the negative effect on the movement’s attempt to create meaningful change. In all, Jules Boykoff’s media framing study of the social justice movement and Stephan Reese’s study of the anarchist protest in Minneapolis depict similar results to our findings for the Occupy Wall Street movement. All three studies show media framing protest movements predominantly as ‘violent’ and ‘illegitimate’. These terms became indicative of dominant frames from both the left and right media outlets. For example, CNN’s host Erin Burnett mocked the protesters, ‘It’s not just a bunch of a dancing hippies protesting; there are all kinds of people there – babies, teachers, cheerleaders ... and that,’ as the camera focused on a man dressed as a zombie (Folkenflik, 2011). This is precisely how media hindered the legitimacy of the movement in the sphere of public opinion. By focusing on superficial aspects of the movement, mainstream media failed to capture the message of the movement; that people were dissatisfied with economic inequality and injustice, and were seeking change. 29-Apr-14 3:37:16 PM 676 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION The similarity among media frames utilized during the global justice movement, the anarchist protest, and Occupy Wall Street reveal a re-use of framing by media to portray social movements. As stated earlier, substantial research has shown remarkably similar media frames of protests even across time and issue area. We have compiled a comparison of the frames found in Table 38.8 below to show that despite the different categorizations/labels by the different authors, the key words and concepts of the frames are nearly identical. This shows remarkable consistency in media portrayal of social movements and protests to the detriment of the various causes and in support of the status quo. By comparing the framing of the three studies on protests plus the overall study on media coverage of social movements, there is a clear media framing pattern that emerges. Given the crossover between Table 38.8 Comparison of protest/social movement frames from framing studies Protest Paradigm (McLeod and Hertog, 1998) Anarchist Protest (Reese, 2007) Antagonist: clashes with police; violence; disruption to society Riot/Confrontation: clashes with police, riots, violence, disruption, clashes Deviant: outside of normal society, fringe, freaks Circus: Clowns, goofballs, carnival, circus. Concentrated on how group differs from rest of society Protest: Accounts focused on the protest activity and day to day life (including maps of routes taken) Debate: Discussion, dialogue, debate. Presented ideological conflicts between anarchist and institutions of society. Official Story: priority and legitimacy given to official, governmental sources Public Opinion: public views on protests matter; public concerns of safety, health, disruption highlighted 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 676 these different protests in different years and social contexts, it is apparent that the media frames recirculate and create a dominant representation overall of social protests in the United States, and arguably around the world. The frames used are now familiar and difficult patterns to break such that the Occupy movement faced both the status quo bias of the media, and the recirculating frames of media coverage of past economic protests against/alter globalization that tended towards a framing of protest as violent, outside of normal society, disruptive and without a clear message. While this may not be the only reason that the protests did not have a broader impact on societal change, it is evident that it negatively affected the ability of the movement to utilize this medium to reach a broader audience and present a relevant and initially appealing socio-economic critique. Anti-Globalization Protest (Boykoff, 2006) Occupy Wall Street (Skonieczny and Morse, 2013) Violence/Disruption: Violence, riots, damage to property, disruption to society, disruption of activities and inconvenience Freak: non-mainstream, costumes, fringe, margins, outside of society Police/Security: clashes with police, anger, confrontation, violence, security, and riot Ignorance: uniformed, protesters not knowledgeable about issue, protest to protest, lack of depth in explaining protest Grievances: lack of clear message, too many disparate issues, lack of demands, no real solution Protest: media coverage, protest logistics, how and where protests spread Illegitimate: hippies, inconvenience, mockery, pot and bums Social/Econ Critique: Discussion or debate on message of protest, economic disparity, wealth gap, 1% or 99%, 29-Apr-14 3:37:16 PM GLOBALIZATION AND THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT GLOBALIZATION AND MEDIA FRAMING OF OCCUPY WALL STREET In contrast to how the media framing of the Occupy movement was received in the United States, as the violence frame increased in frequency in mainstream media, it appears to have had a unifying and solidarity-building effect around the world with other protest movements (Gentile, 2011). While the media reporting on violence in general, whether on the part of protestors or, more commonly, on the part of police, seemed to create an effect of negative association with the Occupy movement for the American public, it created an opportunity for connection and commonality over the experience of repression and police brutality with protestors internationally. For example, one of the more violent clashes with police occurred in Oakland, CA where the police fired tear gas canisters at close range at protestors critically injuring Iraq War veteran, Scott Olsen, who suffered a skull fracture. His injury gained international attention and galvanized support against police brutality. In response, Egyptian protestors marched in solidarity with Occupy 677 Oakland in Cairo (Gentile, 2011). The protesters held signs equating the Occupy protests with the Egyptian revolution earlier that same year. The signs declared: ‘From Egypt to Wall Street. Don’t Afraid (sic). Go ahead. #Occupy Oakland’, ‘We have the same goal’, ‘Oakland and Cairo are one fist’ and ‘From Tahrir, Oakland, London and Greece, the whole world says “Fuck the Police”’(see Figures 38.1 and 38.2). Protestors chanted: ‘Those in Oakland are our brothers and sisters, a class that was dispossessed like we were’ (Gentile, 2011) and issued an open letter to Occupy Wall Street that stated: ‘We are now in many ways involved in the same struggle. What most pundits call “The Arab Spring” has its roots in the demonstrations, riots, strikes and occupations taking place all around the world’ (Shenker and Gabbatt, 2011). Thus, the violence frame, while generally hindering the movement within the United States, had an interesting effect in a social media world of globalization, that of galvanizing solidarity with protestors around the world who could find commonalities in repression, police violence and a fight against perceived government repression of democratic protest. Figure 38.1 From Egypt to Wall Street (Photo taken by Mohammed Maree, October 28, 2011) 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 677 29-Apr-14 3:37:16 PM 678 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION Figure 38.2 We Have the Same Goal (Photo taken by Mohammed Maree, October 28, 2011) The Occupy Wall Street movement indicates that there is indeed, what scholar, Mohammed A. Bamyeh (2012) calls a ‘global culture of protest’ emerging out of the Arab Spring and spreading to many different causes with some common links. Bamyeh argues that the various protest movements and uprisings that have occurred since the Tunisia revolution share six common cultural features: 1. a specific target of corruption within the system, 2. a consensus that there is a lack of representation of ‘everyday’ people in government decisions, 3. a common suspicion of organized political parties and leaders, 4. a belief that alternatives are possible and that democracy can be more representative, 5. that protest movements can serve as a voice for a super-majority, a 99 per cent rather than more narrow class interests or specific groups, and finally, 6. that protestors’ demands or messages are intentionally vague and broad. On the last point, Bamyeh states, ‘While this vagueness may make the protest less focused, it also makes it more attractive for the purpose of expressing indignation at the system as a whole, and from various points of interest’ 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 678 (2012: 18). Indeed this ‘vagueness’ allows multiple protests with specific, local concerns, to blend into one protest ‘movement’ that addresses a global dissatisfaction with economic injustice, inequality and lack of democratic representation. This global protest culture now readily sees links from one place to another despite different local concerns. The globalization of Occupy Wall Street and connection with Arab Spring protests continues to evolve linkages between seemingly disparate protest movements around the world. On 13 June 2013, over 5,000 Brazilians protesting bus fare increases took to the streets in several big cities in a protest movement that snowballed to include dissatisfaction with growing inequality, the World Cup and lack of democratic representation in government (Protesters Chant, 2013). Brazilian protestors connected their protests to ongoing protests in Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey, that started at the end of May 2013. The Turkish protests initially started to prevent the demolition of the park for development projects but due to the violent removal of peaceful sit-in protestors by the government, the protest movement quickly grew to include a wide range of concerns such as lack of democratic freedoms and the Turkish 29-Apr-14 3:37:17 PM GLOBALIZATION AND THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT Prime Minister Erdoğan government’s encroachment on Turkey’s secularism. Despite the different nature of the protests, the Brazilian protestors found commonality and chanted, ‘Peace is over, Turkey is here!’ and waved Turkish flags in solidarity (Protesters Chant, 2013). Additionally, the Turkish protestors used the #OccupyGezi tag and linked their movement to the past Occupy Wall Street protests despite different inspirations (Vatandaş, 2013). Even though the Gezi Park protestors started off focusing on one particular demand – that ‘Gezi Park should remain untouched and a park’ – the movement has turned into a broader reaction against Erdoğan’s government and the protests have grown and received worldwide attention because of his violent response to the protests. As one Turkish commenter states, ‘It is now clear that Erdoğan sees the demonstrations as a serious security threat’ (Vatandaş, 2013). One effect of globalization on mainstream media coverage of Occupy Wall Street appears to be the circulation of the ‘police/security/violence’ frame in a way that unifies a common frustration and struggle against media representation of protest movements as violent, destabilizing, and illegitimate. While mainstream media can effectively influence a more mainstream audience within a country, the framing effects can be interpreted in a globalized protest culture as a way that galvanizes support and shows that perhaps in a new, socialmedia-induced globalization, protest movements like Occupy Wall Street cannot be stifled but will morph and blend into a culture of global protest. CONCLUSION In the United States, the Occupy Wall Street movement brought attention to increasing levels of income inequality in America. Occupy protestors utilized terms such as ‘1 per cent’, ‘99 per cent’, ‘corporate greed’ and ‘income inequality’ to clarify their critique and transform the mass public into sympathizers. 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 679 679 These are still heard in public discourse today and arguably banks and politicians are more sensitive to the income inequality critique. However, our research found that the negative framing of the Occupy movement by mainstream media prevented this broader message from having a greater impact on the economic dialogue taking place in the United States at the time. While it could be argued that aspects of the message have come through, for example, banks such as Wells Fargo have attempted to repair their damaged image by giving more back to communities and re-thinking their foreclosure policies, debt forgiveness has entered into the discussion, and the 99 per cent language continues to have an impact on political debates regarding the growing inequality between the rich and poor in the United States, most of these changes were not facilitated by mainstream media. Indeed, mainstream news hurt the movement through the negative framing of the protests and protesters. By delegitimizing protest movements as it had done before, the media can hinder broader and more systemic change from taking place. Our research shows that mainstream media continues to have a powerful effect despite the rise of social and alternative forms of media. It can shape the message by filtering it through a frame of violence and illegitimacy and, perhaps unintentionally, favour the status quo. Yet, when placed in a global context, it is also evident that the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to have an impact. Despite, and maybe even because of, the mainstream media framing, worldwide protest movements continue to draw similarities and express solidarity across different events around the world. Once the police/security frame escalated in mainstream media, the solidarity between Egyptian Arab Spring protestors and Occupy Oakland strengthened as the two different groups in very different circumstances could draw on a shared experience of police brutality, violence and repression. Globalization can spread images, ideas and experiences rapidly around the 29-Apr-14 3:37:17 PM 680 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION world. Although mainstream media can still impact the framing of an event, particularly when drawing on already circulated past stereotypes such as the negative frames used in media portrayal of the global justice movement protests against the WTO, World Bank and IMF, it cannot wholly contain how those frames will be interpreted in different parts of the world. While mainstream media hindered Occupy Wall Street from having a broader and more sustained impact on the American public, its negative framing had different effects abroad and unified protestors around the world familiar with police and state repression of public protest. Ultimately, globalization creates shared experiences among people in wildly different places and can create a common sense of struggle. NOTES 1 For a sampling of both theoretical and empirical research on framing and social protest, see Iyengar S (1991) Is Anyone Responsible?: How Television Frames Political Issues (Chicago: University of Chicago Press); Heaney M and Rojas F (2006) The place of framing: Multiple audiences and anti-war protests near Fort Bragg (Qualitative Sociology 29(4): 485–505); Peng Z (2008) Framing the antiwar protests in a global village: A comparative study of newspaper coverage in three countries (International Communication Gazette 70(5): 361–77); Boykoff J (2006) Framing dissent: Massmedia coverage of the global justice movement (New Political Science 28(2): 201–28); Cooper A (2002) Media framing and social movement mobilization: German peace protest against INF missiles, the Gulf war, and NATO peace enforcement in Bosnia (European Journal of Political Research 41(1): 37–80); McLeod D and Detenber B (1999) Framing effects of television news coverage of social protest (Journal of Communication 49(3): 3–23); Pu Q and Scanlan S (2012) Communicating injustice? Framing and online protest against Chinese government land expropriation (Information, Communication and Society 15(4): 572–90); Brasted M (2005) Protest in the media (Peace Review 17(4): 383–8); and Kutz-Flamenbaum R, Staggenborg S and Duncan B (2012) Media framing of the Pittsburg G-20 protests. In: Earl J and Rohlinger DA (eds) Media, Movements, and Political Change. (UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.109–35). 38_Steger et al_Ch-38.indd 680 2 In one of the most famous incidents of police violence against Occupy protestors, University of California Davis campus police pepper sprayed directly into the eyes of seated, peaceful student protestors on 18 November. A photograph of UC Davis police officer Lt John Pike pepper spraying demonstrators spread around the world and became an Internet meme as people inserted the photo into famous works of art and popular culture (O’Brien C (2011) How one student’s pepper spray photo became an Internet meme. San Jose Mercury News, 23 November)). 3 In the StatNews program, the term ‘Oakland’ appears as a top co-occurring phrase with the search term ‘Occupy’. Unlike other results such as ‘arrests’ or ‘protest’, the ambiguity of the term ‘Oakland’ offers many more possible cultural interpretations. Without a narrative context provided by a qualitative analysis, the term Oakland might appear to be insignificant. Instead, by analyzing the word in the context of the Occupy movement, it can be determined that the word ‘Oakland’ refers to a series of violent police confrontations with protestors. The most notable event in Oakland refers to the injury of a war veteran protestor who was hit in the face by a tear gas canister launched by riot police. REFERENCES Arnold A (2009) Media effects: Agenda setting. World Bank. Retrieved from: www.blogs.worldbank.org/ publicsphere/media-effects-i-agenda-setting Last Accessed January 8, 2014 Arrests as Halifax cops evict Occupy protesters (2011) CTV News. 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