THE PEOPLE VERSUS THE MEDIA: THE ROLE OF EVERYDAY AUDIENCE DIGITAL ACTIVISM IN CHALLENGING THE NEWS MEDIA FOR ITS REPORTING ON MINORITIES.

Abstract

Research highlights how negative, discriminatory narratives about marginalised groups are increasingly amplified through the digitalisation of the news media. Adopting a multi-method approach using surveys of 450 news audience members acting as everyday digital activists who have challenged the mainstream media on how it reports on minority groups together with ten follow-up focus groups with a sub-cohort of 70 survey respondents, I investigate how British audiences use digital activism to hold the news media to account for discriminatory and divisive coverage against these groups. In this paper, I present the findings of the research in relation to the demographics and motivations behind this type of media-centric digital activism, and how everyday audiences use digital activism to push for a more responsible, fairer news media when reporting on marginalised groups. By investigating the complexities of the media-audiences nexus in the digital age, these insights provide an urgent intervention to contemporary scholarship about how news audiences challenge powerful media institutions through digital activism at a time of increasing disinformation and rising levels of hate towards marginalised communities.