A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of the construction of people of colour (POC) as criminals in UK and US print media following the Black Lives Matter protests of May 2020
Around 2,000 ‘thugs’ were present and over 150 arrested were made in London boroughs during far-right protests to counteract the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, but how accurately was this portrayed in the news? This study used publicly available data in the form of newspapers and blog posts of the BLM protests to conduct a Foucauldian Discourse analysis of 25 articles. How authors used language is explored to conceptualise and construct the depiction of POC as more violent and prone to adopting aggressive means to resist social inequalities. Our findings indicated there is an inherent belief that ethnic minorities possess a predisposition to criminality. The examination of rhetorical constructions in the reviewed articles indicated practical implications, including the potential to highlight issues with the emergence of ‘fake news,’ but hopes to influence policy evaluations on the quality and truth of stories produced in UK and US print media.