How does media coverage influence the effective exercise of the legal right to protest?

本文将调查媒体报道如何影响合法的抗议权利和公众对这一权利的认知这一研究不足的问题。它还将评估新闻传递和消费方面的技术变化对这些权利的影响程度。和平抗议是民主的重要组成部分。它受到言论自由权和集会自由权的保护，这是一种集体的表达行为。联合国人权委员会承认，媒体监督和报道抗议活动的能力对于有效行使这些权利至关重要。然而，媒体报道往往扭曲和歪曲了抗议活动，尤其是过度强调暴力和戏剧性，而不是赋予抗议者表达权利的权利。最近的研究主要是从新闻实践或抗议者策略的角度来关注这一问题。通过使用人权法框架评估媒体报道，拟议的研究将为这一讨论增加一个以前被忽视的层面。拟议的研究旨在通过对2018-2020年灭绝起义抗议活动的报道进行混合方法研究，评估媒体在促进抗议权利方面的作用。它将评估媒体如何传达抗议策略的正当性和合法性，以及这可能会影响公众和国家的理解和反应。虽然这项拟议的研究集中于对灭绝反抗的报道，但目的是对媒体在促进抗议权利方面的作用这一研究不足的问题做出更广泛的贡献。灭绝反抗的破坏和公民抗命策略使这一问题成为这些问题的丰富案例研究。除了抗议者权利的一般原则，包括以选定的方式和地点抗议的权利，它们还提出了更复杂的公民抗命问题，根据英国法律，这可能是非法的，在民主上也是合法的。媒体法庭对抗议者刑事起诉的报道(或缺乏报道)构成了相关话语的一部分。以前的许多研究都研究了一次短暂的抗议运动或选定地点和时间范围内的每一次抗议活动的报道。灭绝起义自2018年以来的媒体报道是一种更长的抗议话语，对其进行分析可能会阐明这一话语随着时间的推移的发展。在抗议运动期间，公众对灭绝反抗的看法和政府的反应似乎发生了变化，这项研究将分析媒体在这种变化中的作用。拟议的研究还将有助于最近的学术辩论，即媒体报道的“抗议范式”如何被另类媒体、在线媒体和国际媒体的崛起所颠覆。灭绝起义军的行动范围从跨国到当地。由此产生的媒体报道来自地方、国家和国际来源；主流、在线和非主流。对这一报道的分析为评估其他媒体来源是否改变了有关抗议权利的话语提供了机会。拟议的研究将使用定量内容和框架分析与定性批评话语分析相结合的方法来调查这些问题，并在国家促进抗议权利的积极义务的背景下考虑它们。

The thesis will investigate the under-researched issue of how media coverage impacts the legal right to protest and public perception of that right. It will also evaluate the extent to which technological changes in news delivery and consumption affect those rights.Peaceful protest is an essential part of democracy. It Is protected by rights to freedom of expression and assembly as a collective, expressive act. The media's ability to monitor and report protest is recognised by the UN Human Rights Committee as essential to effective exercise of these rights. However, rather than enabling protestors' expressive rights, media coverage has often distorted and misrepresented protest, particularly by over-emphasising violence and drama. Recent research had largely focussed on this issue from the perspective of journalistic practises or protestor tactics. By evaluating media coverage using a human rights law framework, the proposed study would add a previously neglected layer to this discussion.The proposed study aims to evaluate the media's role in facilitating protest rights, through a mixed methods study of coverage of Extinction Rebellion protests from 2018 -2020. It will evaluate how the media communicate the legitimacy and legality of protest tactics and the potential this has to influence public and state understanding and response. Whilst focussing on coverage of Extinction Rebellion, this proposed study aims to contribute more generally to the under-researched issue of media's role in the facilitation of protest rightsExtinction Rebellion's tactics of disruption and civil disobedience make this a rich case study for these issues. As well as general principles of protestors' rights, including the right to protest in a chosen manner and location, they raise more complex issues of civil disobedience, which may be both illegal under UK law and democratically legitimate. Media court reporting (or lack thereof) of criminal prosecutions of protestors form part of the relevant discourse.Much previous research has studied coverage of either a short protest campaign or every protest in a chosen location and timeframe. Extinction Rebellion's media coverage since 2018 is a longer protest discourse, analysis of which could illuminate development of this discourse over time. Public perception and government response to Extinction Rebellion appears to have changed during the protest campaign and this study would analyse the media's role in this change.The proposed study would also contribute to recent academic debate as to how the "protest paradigm" of media coverage has been disrupted by the rise of alternative, online and international media. Extinction Rebellion's actions range from transnational to local. Resultant media coverage has come from local, national and international sources; mainstream, online and alternative. Analysis of this coverage provides an opportunity to assess if alternative media sources have changed the discourse about protest rights.The proposed study would use a combination of quantitative content and framing analysis and qualitative critical discourse analysis to investigate these issues and consider them in the context of the state's positive obligation to facilitate protest rights.