News framing of the 2023 United Auto Workers (UAW) – Big 3 labor strike - A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to identify and name the predominant news frames used to depict the 2023 United Auto Workers strike against the Big 3 – Ford, GM and Stellantis. The research objective can be viewed in two parts: 1) identifying the most prominent frames and which actors were favored and 2) comparing the use of frames between mainstream and left alternative news and whether that selection reflects the political leanings of the media sources. The principle theories used in this thesis are Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) and framing theory in addition to a literature overview of class and hegemony, frames found in labor coverage, and Collective Action Frames (CAFs) to set the context for these theories. CDS has a diverse set of strategies named Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and this thesis utilized multiple strategies including: Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), CDA methods (Carvalho, 2008; Machin & Mayr, 2012) and Multi-modal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) (Ledin & Machin, 2020; Way, 2020). It used a sample of 74 pieces of news media from four sources: two mainstream – The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and two left alternative – TruthOut, and More Perfect Union. They are sourced from major timeline events over the length of the UAW strike from 14 September – 30 October, 2023. While three of the news sources are either traditional/online newspapers, More Perfect Union is solely online and their coverage was sourced from their Instagram page as social media platforms are their direct channels for publication. There were nine frames predominant in the news coverage. Five frames from the literature on labor coverage and four CAFs. Those five existing frames from the literature are: 1) a healthy business sector means a healthy economy; 2) Americans are consumers not workers; 3) Strikes and collective worker economic action is un-American; 4) Corporate family; and 5) Class-based anti-union rhetoric. As one could expect, these frames favor the corporations over the workers. I also identified and named four CAFs: 1) this is class war; 2) Union family; 3) workers deserve their fair share; and 4) strikes and collective worker economic action is powerful. They are categorized based on the three types: diagnostic, prognostic and motivational and as they are CAFs, they favor workers.