The Effects of the Rally-round-the-flag Effect and Indirect Media Blackout on Mobilization during the Pandemic

How does mass media cover social movement action in extraordinary times? I study the effects of Covid-19 by examining the environmental movements in the Global North and South. Using mixed methods, I find two effects: Rally-round-the-flag and indirect media blackout. I re-work and extend the “institutional mediation” model (Amenta et al. 2019) to better explain the decline in substantive media coverage of collective action during the early phases of the pandemic. The Rally-round-the-flag effect refers to the short-run increase in governments’ popular support during crises such as wars. Indirect media blackout refers to the idea that in these times, crisis-related news coverage crowds other issues out including movements in non-crisis related issues. To illustrate how these two conditions work against social movements, I focus on environmental policy- a policy area not directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic measures- in Brazil and Turkey. Brazil and Turkey have already been dealing with concerns over democratic backsliding as well as with massive construction projects that triggered large-scale mobilization of environmental movements. Both governments took advantage of the public’s attention on the pandemic to execute their plans. Brazil’s environment minister was famously caught on tape saying: “We need to make an effort while we are in this calm moment in terms of press coverage because they are only talking about COVID, and push through and change all the rules and simplify norms.” To analyze the dynamics of coverage, I combine quantitative and qualitative analysis of one centre-left newspaper from each country: Folha and Cumhuriyet between March 10-December 31, 2021. Because of their editorial leaning, they are among the most likely venues to cover environmental movements. I triangulate the findings with 17 expert interviews I conducted with activists in both countries to understand their perceptions. I demonstrate that indirect media blackout and rally-round-the-flag effect restrained their plans for collective action. Furthermore, it has exacerbated activists’ perception of negative effects of online mobilization. I conclude with the rising concern over the increased class divide in social movement participation as a result of the usage of hybrid mobilization tactics due to the differential affordances of social groups.