Social Movements as a Dialogic Process: Framing, Background Expectancies, and the Dynamics of the Anti-CNN Movement

In 2008, CNN's reports on the Lhasa Riots angered Chinese students and triggered the large-scale Anti-CNN Movement. By examining posts on the movement's website, 310 news articles, and eighteen in-depth interviews, this study identifies the prevailing mentalities of the episode's primary actors-the U.S. media, students, and the Chinese media, and analyzes how their mentalities shaped their framing strategies and their interpretations of others' frames. We call for a shift of focus from the traditional media frame and movement frame to a perspective that sees the dynamics of media-related social movements as a dialogical process bounded by actors' background expectancies.