Politics or Platform: How Social Identity and News Consumption Shaped Perceptions of U.S. University Pro-Palestine Encampment Protests

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

Abstract

This study examines how patterns of media consumption and demographic composition shape public perceptions of the pro-Palestine campus encampments that emerged across the United States in late 2023. Drawing on social identity theory and media framing theory, the research explores whether public support for protest goals and tactics, as well as perceptions of the protests’ effectiveness in generating awareness and political change, are better predicted by news source preference or by identity-based demographic characteristics such as age, education level, and political affiliation. Using survey data from 968 U.S. adults recruited via Prolific, the study finds that while social media and student-run news sources are associated with higher support for the encampments, traditional outlets like cable and network news are linked to lower support. Political identity consistently emerged as the strongest predictor of both support and perceived effectiveness. Overall, the findings suggest that while media environments shape the narratives audiences encounter, identity-based interpretation plays a dominant role in shaping evaluations of protest movements. These findings highlight the interplay between identity-driven interpretation and media framing, providing a clearer understanding of the challenges protest movements face when attempting to shape public opinion in fragmented media environments.

Research Highlights

  • The Problem: Researchers examined how news source preferences and identity-based demographic characteristics (age, education level, political affiliation) shaped public support for pro-Palestine campus encampment protests and perceptions of their effectiveness in generating awareness and political change.

  • The Method: The study analyzed survey data from 968 U.S. adults recruited via Prolific using a three-step hierarchical ordinary least squares regression model.

  • Quantitative Finding: N=968; average survey completion time was 9 minutes with a payment rate of $1.20; 31.2% of participants used social media for news about encampments, followed by cable news (17.5%), national newspapers (14.7%), local news (12.9%), network TV news (11.8%), public TV/radio (7.9%), and student news (4.1%); overall support for protest goals averaged 3.13 (SD=1.47) on a 5-point scale; overall support for protest tactics averaged 2.85 (SD=1.43) on a 5-point scale; perceived effectiveness at generating awareness averaged 1.85 (SD=1.17) on a 0–4 scale; perceived effectiveness at generating change averaged 0.87 (SD=0.98) on a 0–4 scale.

  • Qualitative Finding: Political identity consistently emerged as the strongest predictor of both support and perceived effectiveness, with Democrats expressing greater support and Republicans expressing lower support relative to Independents; noncommercial news sources (social media, student news, public TV/radio) were associated with higher support for protest goals and tactics, whereas commercial outlets (cable news, national network news, national newspapers) were associated with lower support; media consumption overall had a limited impact compared to preexisting identity markers.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990261460443

Publication Date

7-2026

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