Selective Resonance? The Framing of Racist Violence in Media Debates and Protest Mobilization

Media coverage and civil society mobilizations in response to racist violence can contribute to making racism visible and fostering public debate. The racist attacks in Hanau and the killing of George Floyd illustrate this dynamic. However, it remains empirically unclear under which conditions racist violence receives media attention and what role protests play in this process. Against this backdrop, the project addresses the pressing sociopolitical question of why some fatal acts of racist violence - highly visible manifestations of racism - mobilize broad societal solidarity, while others remain largely unnoticed.

The project employs a mixed-methods research design that combines quantitative content analyses of local and national media corpora, as well as original social media data, with a systematic qualitative comparative case study approach. It builds on extensive prior work within the Department of Consensus and Conflict and leverages data collaborations with the NaDiRa media monitoring initiative and the InZentIM.

The project thus delivers, first, an internationally unique mapping and comparative analysis of media reporting on racist violence; second, it advances theory development on the mechanisms that shape the public framing of racist violence; and third, it contributes methodological innovations in the analysis of hybrid media publics using content-analytical techniques and language models. Finally, the societal implications of the findings are discussed with media practitioners and affected community initiatives.