Peace Actions and Mainstream Media : Framing Nuclear Disarmament Protests in Welfare Sweden
(2023) In Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements p.165-191- Abstract
This chapter investigates how reports in Swedish mainstream media framed the 1980s peace movement collective actions in Sweden. By revisiting press coverage of protest events, the analysis identifies the central characteristics of the framing. Primarily, the protests are found to be framed in positive terms and successfully conveyed what Charles Tilly and others have noted as key for a social movement to gain influence: worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment. In addition, the collective actions were framed as common sense based, festive, and diverse, and in favorable terms in contrast to the notion of the “protest paradigm,” which states that this kind of protest generally was framed negatively, and the framing of collective peace... (More)
This chapter investigates how reports in Swedish mainstream media framed the 1980s peace movement collective actions in Sweden. By revisiting press coverage of protest events, the analysis identifies the central characteristics of the framing. Primarily, the protests are found to be framed in positive terms and successfully conveyed what Charles Tilly and others have noted as key for a social movement to gain influence: worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment. In addition, the collective actions were framed as common sense based, festive, and diverse, and in favorable terms in contrast to the notion of the “protest paradigm,” which states that this kind of protest generally was framed negatively, and the framing of collective peace action in other countries. An explanation for the positive framing could be that the peace movement’s claims were non-threatening to the Swedish nuclear welfare state. This favorable framing can be further attributed to what is here analyzed as media-movement co-framing, meaning that the media’s representation of peace actions and collective action framework of them to a significant degree overlapped can explain the favorable framing. As a result, the movement and media framings mutually reinforced each other.
(Less)
- author
- Öhman, Anton LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Collective protest action, Euromissiles, Framing, Nuclear disarmament, Peace movement
- host publication
- Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements
- series title
- Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements
- pages
- 27 pages
- publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85158081498
- ISSN
- 2634-6567
- 2634-6559
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-031-27370-4_7
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 73de0f49-82a7-407a-bfee-fcde04e483c1
- date added to LUP
- 2023-08-16 11:14:46
- date last changed
- 2025-06-29 17:28:06
@inbook{73de0f49-82a7-407a-bfee-fcde04e483c1,
abstract = {{<p>This chapter investigates how reports in Swedish mainstream media framed the 1980s peace movement collective actions in Sweden. By revisiting press coverage of protest events, the analysis identifies the central characteristics of the framing. Primarily, the protests are found to be framed in positive terms and successfully conveyed what Charles Tilly and others have noted as key for a social movement to gain influence: worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment. In addition, the collective actions were framed as common sense based, festive, and diverse, and in favorable terms in contrast to the notion of the “protest paradigm,” which states that this kind of protest generally was framed negatively, and the framing of collective peace action in other countries. An explanation for the positive framing could be that the peace movement’s claims were non-threatening to the Swedish nuclear welfare state. This favorable framing can be further attributed to what is here analyzed as media-movement co-framing, meaning that the media’s representation of peace actions and collective action framework of them to a significant degree overlapped can explain the favorable framing. As a result, the movement and media framings mutually reinforced each other.</p>}},
author = {{Öhman, Anton}},
booktitle = {{Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements}},
issn = {{2634-6567}},
keywords = {{Collective protest action; Euromissiles; Framing; Nuclear disarmament; Peace movement}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{165--191}},
publisher = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
series = {{Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements}},
title = {{Peace Actions and Mainstream Media : Framing Nuclear Disarmament Protests in Welfare Sweden}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27370-4_7}},
doi = {{10.1007/978-3-031-27370-4_7}},
year = {{2023}},
}