How do Human Rights Fit into the Debate? The Representation and Frames of Social Movement Organizations in a Newspaper Debate on the 2010 French Eviction and Expulsion of Roma Migrants

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes the representation of social movement organizations (SMOs) and the frames to which they are linked in a newspaper debate developing after a specific human-rights violation. This analysis is intended to demonstrate how research on social movements and human-rights frames and research on the access of NGOs to the media can complement each other in the investigation of mediated human-rights debates. The violation addressed in this study concerns the eviction of many Roma from their dwellings and their expulsion from France in the summer of 2010. We analyzed the reports in the French newspaper Le Monde on this violation. In response to the first research question – “How were SMOs represented in the selected newspaper debate?” – our analysis indicates that SMOs were less strongly represented than were actors in the French government, except through general reference. With regard to the second research question – “To which frames on the human-rights violation were SMOs linked in the selected newspaper debate?” – the framing analysis reveals a prevalent anti-racist frame, very little explicit reference to human rights, and frames influenced by national logics.