Research indicates that when mainstream news media report about demonstrations, protesters often face delegitimizing coverage. This phenomenon, known as the “(journalistic) protest paradigm,” is thought to be a default mindset that leads journalists to emphasize the method of protesters over their message. However, empirical work has so far limited itself to specific protest movements or events and only covers brief periods. This study first identifies and then codes the main frames in all reports about domestic protest in the United Kingdom. Analysing data that covers eight national newspapers during a 26 year period (N = 27,496), I provide a more systematic understanding of how the mainstream news media in liberal democracies report about protests. The analysis shows that a stable majority of articles uses frames linked to the protest paradigm throughout the time period. However, a substantial and growing number of articles employ legitimizing frames—either on their own or co-existing with delegitimizing framing.

研究表明，当主流新闻媒体报道示威活动时，抗议者往往面临着不合法的报道。这种被称为“（新闻）抗议范式”的现象被认为是一种默认的心态，导致记者强调抗议者的方法而不是他们的信息。然而，迄今为止，实证工作仅限于特定的抗议运动或事件，并且只涵盖短暂的时期。本研究首先确定并编码所有关于英国国内抗议的报告中的主要框架。分析 26 年期间涵盖 8 家全国性报纸的数据（N= 27,496），我对自由民主国家的主流新闻媒体如何报道抗议活动提供了更系统的理解。分析表明，在整个时间段内，稳定的大多数文章都使用与抗议范式相关的框架。然而，大量且越来越多的文章使用合法化框架——无论是单独使用还是与非合法化框架共存。