International Reactions to the Capitol Attack of January 6th: A Media Frames Analysis

Abstract

On January 6, 2021, the United States experienced an insurrection at the United States Capitol that was framed in varying and complex ways by traditional U.S. allies, competing nations, and adversaries. This manuscript examines the statements of foreign leaders, international media reports, and social media posts through a media framing analysis. Thousands of pages of press reports from countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Israel, Russia, and China, formed different views of the insurrection. There were concerns about U.S. democracy, questions about U.S. leadership, and expressions of each nation’s self-interest in the transactional nature of their own economical, ideological or political interests. Operationalizing a media frame analysis, this essay examines the January 6th events to suggest that global reactions to democracy are bolstered, ridiculed, and, frequently, contested internationally.

American Media Coverage of the January 6, 2021 Events at the United States Capitol: A Glimpse into the Polarisation of the United States News Media

“…While the extreme polarization of the news media in the United States is a media phenomenon that has been evident for the last two to three decades, it has become especially pronounced in the year and a half following the storming of the United States Capitol (Boone et al 2022). One major question that does emerge from this analysis is that of how much the media polarization itself contributed to this event, and in turn, how much the insurrection further polarized the American media.…”

Documenting the January 6 attack on the US Capitol: A comparative case study on German and US perspectives for teaching the historical and the contemporary

“…They were also less likely to report antagonism against individuals who did not share their political or cultural values. Further, analysis of various news reports following the insurrection suggest the German media quickly condemned former President Donald Trump as an inciter of the insurrection and likened his role to that of a dictator (Boone et al, 2023). Given, these divergent contextual experiences, we also grounded our study in German history education didactics, particularly the self-reflective practices of multiperspectivity and historical consciousness.…”

“…German media has offered an array of coverage related to the event and teachers, and like their US counterparts, have made pedagogical decisions on how to approach the insurrection in their own classrooms. However, unlike the US coverage of January 6th, media analysis suggests Germany political commentary was more direct in their criticism of Donald Trump and the perpetrators of the event (Boone, et al, 2023). This study, a collaboration between teacher educators in the US and Germany, contextualized the similarities and differences in how US and German social studies/history teachers made meaning of the January 6th attack and their rationale for teaching (or in some cases not teaching) the event.…”