TV news coverage of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter protests

FTM 450 Research Project by Daniel Passapera

Thesis:

Fox News and other media outlets pander to their audience’s viewpoints and use this to spread false and dangerous information. The media outlet uses persuasion and propaganda in their reporting to achieve this. With the mentioned examples below it becomes quite clear that Fox manipulates its audience with these tactics from online, to the focus of this project, television.

Question(s) to be answered:

  • How does Fox News portray false narratives about BLM and COVID?

  • How is Fox News able to convince its viewers of that narrative?

  • What is the difference between TV personalities and journalists? Are TV personalities often mistaken as trustworthy journalists?

The Timeline: 2020

The goal of this research project is to examine Fox New’s TV coverage during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests and the unknowns of a looming pandemic in 2020. It’s essential to examine both as the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man from Minneapolis, Minnesota, was a breaking point, forcing protests in the streets demanding justice and an end to injustices. At the same time as the protests, a raging pandemic, which at the time took the lives of 100,000 people, posed a risk to protestors and the world. I chose this timeframe because I personally covered protests locally through photos. I also have had experiences with family members who’s views are skewed and influenced by what they see on TV, mostly from their news source, Fox News. At the same time, I received great resentment for this coverage, “what about the cops?” “you call this peaceful? Then comes COVID, with many of my family members failing to protect themselves because of the “evil vaccine” they hear constantly repeated through the television screen.

Credit: Hundreds of protestors taking over a portion of I-95 in Norwalk on May 31, 2020. (Daniel Passapera)

“Fox News has largely focused on the network’s ideological disposition, assuming Fox News to be a journalistic operation. However, a handful of scholars have challenged those assumptions… finding… the network’s prime-time programs to be practicing propaganda, not journalism.”

Source: Bard, Mitchell T. “Propaganda, Persuasion, or Journalism?” Electronic News, vol. 11, no. 2, SAGE Publications, May 2017, pp. 100–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1931243117710278.

Clip Analysis: Staten Island Mask Protests vs. Black Lives Matter Protests. The first two clips, in particular, show the two themes of BLM and COVID very well and the Fox approach to covering them. It’s interesting to note that Fox airs the clips of the riots but when they approach Staten Island they don’t show any clips. Note, they also promote breaking COVID gatherings as “freedom” but when they discuss curfews, or even the notion of protesting, which is a right, “making a bad situation worse” — they deliberately latch onto the riots to provoke audience emotion.

Findings: Fox News understands its primetime audience.

  • 1. “Conservative news will cover Black Lives Matter protests as more a) violent/lawless and b) combative and less c) effective and d) peaceful than centrist- or left-leaning new.”

  • 2. “After controlling for demographic information, a) conservative political affiliation, b) more Fox News consumption, and c) more ideologically centrist consumption use will predict a decrease in support for Black Lives Matter protesters.”

  • 3. Fox News relies heavily on the ‘Protest Paradigm’ “a theoretical framework suggesting coverage is much more likely to highlight details about the disruptive actions of protests.”

    Source: Brown, Danielle K., and Rachel R. Mourão. “No Reckoning for the Right: How Political Ideology, Protest Tolerance and News Consumption Affect Support Black Lives Matter Protests.” Political Communication, vol. 39, no. 6, Informa UK Limited, Sept. 2022, pp. 737–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2022.2121346

  • Video: Trevor Noah Show Youtube

The Debate:

According to the New York Times, Fox News retains its strength because its audience doesn’t recognize the findings above. It suggests Fox's “strength on the political right….the way in which it shapes its viewers’ beliefs, its grip on Republican power and the views of its leadership” (Confessore) prevent the network from ever dying. Fox News “of the five primary U.S. cable news channels, reaches the most viewers by far according to the Nielsen ratings (Bard). Viewers of the network are attracted to the grip the network has on the political right and because of this, viewers are inclined to trust this as their main source of news. With this in mind, distrust of media sources outside of Fox News are at an all-time high. If it doesn’t follow along the talking points you subscribe to, it simply won’t be seen as true. In short, the stories Fox airs are seen as legitimate and trustworthy mitigating the effects and paradigm mentioned above. They simply don’t believe they’re being brainwashed.

Photo Credit: WAPO

My take:

Given the details under “timeline”, my family’s connection to this is sad yet all too real for many. Fox utilizes primetime hours with prominent personalities to do the “reporting”. They’re all too convincing to an audience who get their news from one source. It’s an audience that also rejects any notion or information that doesn’t fit their agenda and Fox understands this quite well. They spread false or if true often extremely curated information that is often dangerous to the public viewing it and they don’t even realize it. This is the reason why as a journalist I’m afraid to share the things I see or cover with my family. This isn’t the first time Fox has done this either and especially as of recent.

Video Credit: NYT

“The network’s marketing is built around a claim of being “fair and balanced.”

Source: Bard, Mitchell T. “Propaganda, Persuasion, or Journalism?” Electronic News, vol. 11, no. 2, SAGE Publications, May 2017, pp. 100–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1931243117710278.

Clip Analysis: Yet another example of how Fox covers Black lives and COVID when compared to covering anti-vaccine truckers protesting in Canada. Note the personalities, as mentioned in the “my take” section above. All big names in the TV news industry — Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and so on. Many of these clips were aired during the primetime television slot.

Findings: Fox News continues to spread willful ignorance to this day and has done so for many years just like this.

  • 1. In one clip from a segment: “For roughly 25 minutes, Carlson criticized the Black Lives Matter movement and growing calls for cities to defund police departments or completely get rid of them.” (Chiu, Video). This is a perfect example of the Protest Paradigm, as mentioned above.

  • 2. A study listed in the Washington Post, found after Fox viewers tuned into CNN for prolonged periods of time this occurred; “For example, we found large effects on attitudes and policy preferences about COVID-19. We also found changes in evaluations of Donald Trump and Republican candidates and elected officials.” “Participants in the experiment even grew to recognize the way in which Fox News presents reality,” (Bump). This is the difference in mindset that you get when you don’t watch one network religiously.

  • 3. “If you control the information that goes into the brain, to a great degree, you control what that brain is going to do, in terms of what that person’s going to believe.,” (The Brainwashing of My Dad). With heavily curated clips and information at the mouths of influential figures during the nation’s most-watched TV news hour, this is how propaganda and persuasion are effective for Fox.

    Source(s): Listed after quotes and analysis.

  • Video: Trevor Noah Show Youtube

Conclusion:

Fox to this day still uses their influence through primetime, its hosts, and the use of the protest paradigm to spread its political agenda for views and ratings at the expense of its viewer’s minds. The debate is from the network and its viewers who don’t even know they’re being brainwashed and pushed into alternate and curated “facts” and clips. Suggestion: Media Literacy is an excellent practice and something to always be aware of when absorbing information. As someone with journalism experience, it’s imperative to know where you’re getting your news from and don’t be afraid to venture out into sources that don’t align with your views, you might just learn something, especially when you’re conditioned not to learn it.

Video Credit: NowThis YouTube

For Fun: More proof of Fox’s ever changing narratives and mission to brainwash its viewers. Take a look at this youtube clip, for as long or as short as you’d like. Make note of how they potray information, of who the anchors are, of when it was aired and how their narrative can quickly change on a swivel. Count how many time they repeat words or phrases. What did you find?

Works Cited: 

Bard, Mitchell T. “Propaganda, Persuasion, or Journalism?” Electronic News, vol. 11, no. 2, SAGE Publications, May 2017, pp. 100–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1931243117710278.

Brown, Danielle K., and Rachel R. Mourão. “No Reckoning for the Right: How Political Ideology, Protest Tolerance and News Consumption Affect Support Black Lives Matter Protests.” Political Communication, vol. 39, no. 6, Informa UK Limited, Sept. 2022, pp. 737–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2022.2121346.

Bump, Philip. “The Unique, Damaging Role Fox News Plays in American Media.” Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2022, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/04/unique-damaging-role-fox-news-plays-american-media.

Chiu, Allyson. “Tucker Carlson Says Protests Are ‘Definitely Not About Black Lives,’ Prompting Backlash.” The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/09/fox-black-lives-carlson. Accessed 9 June 2020.

Confessore, Nicholas. “How Tucker Carlson Reshaped Fox News — and Became Trump’s Heir.” The New York Times, 30 Apr. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-fox-news.html.

NowThis News. “Fox News Claims It Never Called COVID-19 a Hoax | NowThis.” YouTube, 23 Mar. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DmW_H4U-MI.

Simonov, Andrey, et al. “The Persuasive Effect of Fox News: Non-Compliance With Social Distancing During the Covid-19 Pandemic.” NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, May 2020, https://doi.org/10.3386/w27237.

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. “Fox News: Staten Island Protests Vs. BLM Protests | the Daily Social Distancing Show.” YouTube, 11 Dec. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqHHqwgYhtA.

---. “Fox News Talking About BLM but Make the Footage the DC Trucker Convoy | the Daily Show.” YouTube, 7 Mar. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQtKYchnEGQ.