Framing the Yellow Vests Protests in the French Press

Abstract

This study examines how four key French newspapers that vary in their positions and outreach, (Le Monde—central leftist, Le Figaro—central rightist, L‘Humanité—leftist, and La Croix— Catholic) covered the Yellow Vests (YV) movement. Specifically, it examines how the newspapers vary in their use of positive and negative frames, sources, and tone towards the YV protests during a six-month period. Analyses of frames reveal that the most prevalent across all newspapers was the legitimising frame (positive), and the least used was the delegitimising frame (negative). Additionally, Le Monde and Le Figaro shared slightly similar results of negatively framing the events in just more than half of their coverage despite their distinct political leanings. Several differences were also found between L‘Humanité and the remaining publications; while official sources were the most used sources by Le Monde, La Croix, and Le Figaro, L‘Humanité relied mostly on YV sources and presented the most overwhelmingly positive tone toward the YV movement. These results lend support to some perceived public concerns over the critical portrayal of the YV protests and overreliance on official narratives in the French press but show that significant disparities remain in the news coverage among newspapers with different ideological orientations.

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