'The Hate in Our Midst' : The 2017 Unite the Right Rally and Representations of Voice, Race, and Emotions in CNN International and Al-Jazeera English 

Abstract: Although the 'affective turn' in social sciences lead to a new understanding of the effects of emotions on society, the role of emotions in media remains scarcely researched. Purpose of this study is to shed light on emotions in global television news and the ways in which gendered and racialized power relations may shape, and may be shaped by, emotional practices and discourses. Precisely because emotions play a significant function in discourses of political conflict, focus here is the coverage of political dissent, specifically the coverage of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in the two global television channels CNN International and Al-Jazeera English. The study thus builds on literature on emotions and political struggles, and literature on emotions in the media, to apply the questions posed therein to the medium global television. Analyzing broadcast items, this study employs a mixed method approach that combines a quantitative content analysis with a qualitative analysis of broadcast items grounded in Teun A. van Dijk’s tradition of critical discourse analysis, within an analytical framework that privileges emotions. The findings reveal an unequal distribution of voice in the coverage of both channels, which in connection with emotion practices and discourses, establishes a marginalization of voice along the lines of race, class, and gender. Accordingly, the study gives an account of the representation of voice, race, and emotions in the coverage of the Unite the Right rally, and establishes the importance of studying emotions in media in relation to these concepts.