Covering online protest: what changes and what remains the same? Examples from the protest for justice for Roman Zadorov

When reporting on protests, the mainstream media often adopts the “protest paradigm,” a set of “rules of thumb” determining which events receive coverage and how they are framed. Events challenging the status quo are often portrayed negatively. Coverage is often episodic rather than thematic, relying heavily on official sources. Additionally, protest coverage is often reactive rather than proactive. However, research indicates that there has been a shift in the coverage of protests since the early 2000s, whereby protests are framed more positively, with a greater emphasis on the causes, methods, and goals of the protesters, while reliance on institutional sources for coverage decreases. This study offers a dual contribution. Firstly, it extends the application of the protest paradigm to social media-based protests, an area that has received limited attention in existing literature. Secondly, by combining content analysis with digital netnography, this research provides a comprehensive understanding of both the content and the contextual dynamics of the protest for justice for Roman Zadorov, considering its distinctive context, scale, and scope of participation. The findings reveal a mixed framing of the protest. Framing is predominantly thematic rather than episodic, and most interviewees are activists rather than establishment figures. Nevertheless, the establishment still holds the power to proactively shape agendas, with protesters lacking comparable resources, connections, and capabilities.