University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA
*Correspondence to: Felicia McGhee, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 615 McCallie Avenue, Department 3003, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37403, USA; E-mail: felicia-mcghee@utc.edu
Online published on 12 September, 2016.
Most social movements receive some type of news media coverage during the course of the movement. How the media covers a social movement and its participants is critical in the influence it plays on media consumers. This study analyzes the news framing of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On December 5, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat for a white man. That act of refusal resulted in a 381-day protestofthecity'ssegregatedbussystem. Thisresearch elucidateshowtheboycott was framed in the local newspaper, Montgomery Advertiser. The findings of this study are crucial in understanding the complexity of past and contemporary social movements, and how social norms may influence the ensuing news coverage.
Framing, blacks, African-Americans, Montgomery Bus Boycott, social movements
