Student resistance movements in higher education: an analysis of the depiction of Black Lives Matter student protests in news media

Abstract

Popular media shapes societal perceptions and discourse. The growing use of news media in higher education practices (outreach, admissions, and campus communication) have heightened the need for institutional leadership to not only understand the general impact of popular media but also to comprehend students’ representation, as well as the acquisition and dissemination of media content. In this study, authors present a media content analysis of newspaper coverage of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in the well-known periodical, the Chronicle of Higher Education. Ultimately, this study demonstrates (1) organizational leadership can be influenced and disrupted to promote racial justice and (2) the discursive treatment of the BLM in popular media and, and by extension, in the United States’ public imagination. Overall, this study suggests that in situations where institutional policies perpetuate racial inequity, BLM student movements have the capacity to complicate existing discourse about Blackness in higher education and catalyze substantial social change.

Keywords:

• Media
• universities
• race
• students
• Black Lives Matter

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meseret F. Hailu

Dr. Meseret F. Hailu is an Assistant Professor of Higher & Postsecondary Education in Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Her research centers on gender equity in STEM education, and she focuses on the strategies that help historically underrepresented students and faculty succeed in these fields

Molly Sarubbi

Dr. Molly Sarubbi is Senior Project Manager at Education Commission of the States, and completed her doctoral degree in Higher Education at the University of Denver. Her research and diverse professional experiences continue to examine equity in higher education policy and practice, with a specific focus on the educational experiences of foster youth and community-based research