Informed Influence: The Impact of Media Portrayal on Black Lives Matter Support

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence that the media portrayal of police violence has on support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement using a belief elicitation study. Participants are exposed to a fictitious media article reporting a police killing. Across randomly assigned treatment groups, I vary both the gender of the victim of police violence and the context provided in the article about police violence and the BLM Movement. I measure participants’ beliefs about discrimination, social justice, and the Black Lives Matter Movement to construct an overall support index for BLM. I find that on an aggregate level, there is no significant effect of either the gender of the victim or provided context on BLM support. However, I do find baseline differences in support across demographic groups. Most notably, Democrats report higher support for BLM than Republicans in my survey. I also find significant interaction effects between the treatments and different demographic characteristics. Notably, male respondents had significant increases in BLM support when exposed to the gender and context treatments. Future research should examine the impact of larger, more sustained media interventions on BLM support.