The Yellow Thread: A Discourse Analysis of the Gilets Jaunes Movement in France

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The Yellow Thread

A discourse analysis of the gilets jaunes movement in France

Eva Verschuur (10778683) Supervisor: Dr. David Laws Second reader: Dr. Martijn Dekker 26th of June 2020

Conflict Resolution and Governance, University of Amsterdam

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Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. David Laws, for being an excellent guide on this journey. David stimulated our imagination and pushed our scholarly boundaries in order to encourage us in reaching our full potential. Furthermore, he was always available for a chat or a discussion, in person or through Zoom. He helped us restructure our research processes in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis and for that I am very grateful. Next to David, I also want to thank my supervision group, who were a big support every week and advised me through many WhatsApp-conversations.

A huge thank you to my dearest friends, roommates and family members who I must have bored with crazy theories and line of thoughts about this subject, but were always listening and offering advice. A special shoutout to my best friend Gözde Nur, my eyes’ guiding light, with whom I have skyped my way through the last struggling weeks and who always inspires me to do my best, push my limits and dream big. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read parts of my messy drafts and who helped me sharpen my arguments.

I also want to thank my French contacts, Dany, Barbara and Saskia, who gave me names of people to interview and information to ponder on. Thank you to my father for teaching me French and making this process much easier. I would also like to thank the very sweet ladies at Zuivere Koffie, who asked me about my thesis every week and gave me extra chocolates next to my coffee (pre-quarantine). Lastly, thank you to my respondents for giving up their time and energy for an interview and to the gilets jaunes in general for being a fascinating group of people.

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Abstract

This research has examined the case of the gilets jaunes movement through the research question: ‘Is the gilets jaunes movement a social movement?’. Guided by this somewhat rhetorical question and through the use of a discourse analysis, I have looked at data derived from newspapers articles, interviews and videos about three critical moments that portrayed the first, and most influential, month of this social movement. This data has been analysed through the lenses of different social movement theories, namely theory on grievances, collective identity, mechanisms of social movements, the dramaturgy of protest and the protest paradigm manifested in newspapers. The case of the gilets jaunes movement has shown how complex a puzzle a social movement can be. The gilets jaunes movement consist of different grievances, identities, strategies, organizational elements, stages, discourses, narratives, frames and perceptions. Overall, new theory on recent social movements like the gilets jaunes is necessary to get a better comprehension of this fluent, ever-changing and all-encompassing movement.

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2.6 Protest paradigm ... 25 3. Research Design ... 27 3.0.1 Covid-19-related changes ... 27 3.1 Research question ... 28 3.2 Data gathering ... 29 3.2.1 Critical moments ... 29 3.2.2 Newspaper articles ... 30 3.2.3 Video’s ... 32 3.2.4 Interviews ... 33 3.2.5 Privacy ... 34 3.3 Discourse analysis ... 35

3.3.1 Coding and grounded theory ... 35

3.4 Ethics and positionality ... 37

3.4.1 Blind spots ... 37

3.4.2 Reflection on the practice of doing research ... 38

4. Fuel tax: the final drop ... 39

4.1 Purchasing power ... 40

4.2 Self rule ... 40

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4.4 The influence of emotions ... 43

5. The ras-le-bol: collective identity formed by grievances ... 45

5.1 Twisted perceptions ... 46

6. More than a contentious performance? ... 48

6.1 Campaigns ... 48

6.2 Repertoire ... 49

6.3 Worthiness ... 50

6.4 Unity ... 51

7. The stages of protest ... 53

7.1 The mistrust in mainstream media ... 53

7.2 Self-reportation of news ... 54

7.3 Social media as platform for storylines ... 55

7.4 The various stages of social media ... 56

7.5 The dramaturgy of violence during protests ... 58

7.5.1 The casseurs ... 58

7.5.2 Police violence ... 59

8. The protest paradigm in French newspapers ... 61

8.1 Difference between newspapers and videos ... 61

8.2 Prioritization of voices... 62

9. Conclusion ... 64

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1. Introduction

November 17th_{, 2018. France is shaken up by people in yellow vests popping up out of nowhere.}

They travelled from their villages and towns from all parts of France in order to attend the demonstration in Paris. Or, if they could not manage to go that far, they stayed on their local roundabouts and shopping boulevards, stopping people on their travels. In buses, cars and on motors, they blocked highways, roundabouts and boulevards and created overall chaos in the whole country. Before this particular protest on the 17th_{of November, unrest was already slowly}

stirring on social media. A couple of months before, Priscillia Ludosky, a small businessowner, started an online petition against the new fuel tax that would cause an increase of the fuel price. Initially, this petition did not gather much attention. However, things started to snowball when Eric Drouet, another famous gilet jaune, joined forced with Ludosky and organised a nationwide protest against the fuel tax on Saturday 17th_{of November 2018. As the initially stated problem,}

the new fuel tax, was car-related, wearing the mandatory yellow vests would send a clear signal to the French government. This elementary grievance was mostly present amongst people from rural areas, which ensured that other periphery-related problems were quickly addressed by the movement as well. Issues like the decline of social services, or the increasing work-home distance many rural-living French experience due to work being more centralized geographically and housing prices being too high to afford anything close to these work areas. Although the number of participants, 300,000 people at the first protest, was high, it was certainly not the highest number of demonstration participants in French history. The enormous impact of the gilets jaunes movement seemingly came from their disparity throughout the French countryside, the fact that they blocked important routes of transportation and that they were different from traditional protesters; loud, spontaneous and disorganised. These people were not your standard protest people. For many of them, this was their first protest in their lives. The gilets jaunes consisted of pensionado’s, factory workers, mothers and fathers taking care of families, farmers, people without a job or who felt generally abandoned by the government and so forth. They felt powerless and invisible, and they could be right in feeling so. The gilets jaunes were, and still are, mostly angry. For many of them, a price increase of a few cents per litre fuel meant not being able to afford a car ride anymore to get some bread from the closest available boulangerie.

The abovementioned group is often summarized as ‘the working poor’. It is a metaphor for people who feel like they perform according to the manual of our dominant societal system, neoliberal capitalism, but still fall short to reap the benefits of said system.

"They are mostly people who are too rich for help but too poor to live well, people who often feel forgotten and despised by an upper class of which Macron is the personification". His provocative statements about people who are "nothing" or "work ethic" were grist to

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8 the mill. "By wearing that yellow jacket, they forge new social bonds, they find a new pride." The symbolism is simple: the safety vest is to be "seen". "You see people who wouldn't otherwise be in the media." (NRC, December 7, 2018).

The quote stems from an article I read in the beginning of December 2018, when the gilets jaunes movement was just a month old and already had spread to other countries, as for example The Netherlands. It sowed the seeds for the research I have conducted over the past months. I found their situation so unfair and to me, this uprising seemed like a sign of times that needed to be changed. Unclear to observers like myself, was the motivation that ensured that people felt so upset that they decided to coordinate the mass demonstrations that blocked roads, highways and cities. Who were these people that were so angry at the world in which they felt forgotten and ignored? Why did so many strangers, seemingly suddenly, feel connected enough to each other to stand in the cold for hours, to withstand police violence, and to sustain the initial protest over the months that followed? How has it come to this? How can we understand their need for change and how can we opt for that change?

In order to make sense of this colourful movement, one has to start with some historical context. How could it be that these problems were addressed in France, when many of the same issues are present in other countries as well? What is it about French people that revolutionizes them on such a large and immediate scale? According to Charles Tilly’s research on The contentious French, contention in France and its subsequent collective action stems from two major developments: state-making and capitalism (Tilly, 1986). Over time, these processes have produced a state whose power is highly centralized, with a labour force that is highly organized around large cities or other production areas. This is also the case for the French police, according to Della Porta et al. (1998). The French model of the police force is described as “a state police under the strict control of the central government” (della Porta et al., 1998, p.112), which ensures that the police force is often seen as a symbol of state power. Peripheral France has always been on the outside of aforementioned power structures and wealth distribution. Throughout history, this has been a point of contestation that is being readdressed with the gilets jaunes movement. Is this movement just a repetition of old wounds and anger? What makes the gilets jaunes movement a social movement?

1.1 Research question

In this research I will look at the puzzle that is the gilets jaunes movement. For a long time, I struggled with finding the most interesting part of this movement. After a while, I realised that this struggle is exactly the interesting part. Figuring out the gilets jaunes movement is not something that can be done through just one point of view. It has so many sides, subjects, actors, consequences and influences, that a focus point is needed to construct a solid research. Because

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9 of this, I have focussed my research on this puzzle. My empirical focus will therefore be centred around the research question: ‘Is the gilets jaunes movement a social movement?’. Through different social movement theories that serve as different point of views, I will analyse the frames and discourses that build the perceptions of the gilets jaunes in order to comprehend this movement slightly better. This is divided into a set of sub-questions:

- How are the grievances of the gilets jaunes framed? - How is the identity of the gilets jaunes framed?

- How are the mechanisms behind the movement framed? - How are protests of the gilets jaunes dramaturgically framed?

- How are the gilets jaunes framed from the perspective of newspapers?

These questions will be answered through a discourse analysis that is structured around three critical moments: the first protest, the third protest and the moment of Macron’s speech, which will be elaborated on in the chapter on the research design. These moments will help me focus my research towards the first month of this social movement, which has been the most formative and influential. The three moments are especially useful when selecting data amongst newspaper articles, which is one of my data sources. Next to newspaper articles, I used interviews and videos as sources for the data used in my research. Before I start with my analysis, it is crucial to have a constructive theoretical framework and research design. This will be the structure that will lead me through the case of the gilets jaunes movement. My empirical focus in this research is of a qualitative nature, with a locus on frames and discourses present in social movements.

Chapter 2 will talk about the different theoretical perspectives that I use to make sense of the gilets jaunes movement. For example, I will use theory on grievances to analyse the way in which participants and other actors frame the problems that appear central to the conflict. In chapter 3 I will elaborate on the research design and the decisions I made throughout the research process. Chapters 4 to 10 will combine the theory and the gathered data into an extensive analysis of the case. I will conclude my research in chapter 11.

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2. Making sense of social movements

In the preceding chapter, I framed my research question for the case of the gilets jaunes, asking, “Is the gilets jaunes a social movement?”. This research question raises many other questions, that will be examined through existing social movement theories. The first question to ask is for example, ‘which theory can help me analyse the gilets jaunes movement?’, or ‘what is a social movement?’. These sensitizing questions will help me find a way through copious amounts of theory, as the question of ‘what is a social movement?’ has been objected to a long history of debate among scholars and activists, and point out which theories are relevant for my research question. This chapter will therefore be an examination of potential theories that could shed a light on the gilets jaunes movement.

Before I start, it is important to begin with a definition of the concept of a social movement. Alain Touraine, one of the pioneer theorists on social movements, defines a social movement “as an agent of conflict for the social control of the main cultural patterns” (1985, p.785). His definition remains basic, however, and omits aspects such as interaction, action and meaning that focus more on the process of becoming and developing as a social movement. Alberto Melucci (1995) analysed social movements as “action systems” and defined contemporary social movements as “solidarity networks with potent cultural meanings, and it is precisely these that distinguish them so sharply from political actors and formal organizations” (p.53). This definition fits with the way the gilets jaunes movement has created community via physical places in which strangers find themselves through the sharing of grievances and the discovery of shared threads of identity. Melucci broke with the idea that institutional forces of power solely determine social movements and their actions. Instead, he focused on the role of collective identity; “the product of conscious action and the outcome of self-reflection” in social movements (1995, p.50). This line of thinking has been critiqued by scholars as overlooking institutional influences on social life that should not be forgotten when talking about the dynamics of a social movement (Lee, 2007).

A more recent definition seems to fit the gilets jaunes better:

“Accordingly, social movements can be thought of as collectivities acting with some degree of organization and continuity outside of institutional or organizational channels for the purpose of challenging or defending extant authority, whether it is institutionally or culturally based, in the group, organization, society, culture, or world order of which they are a part.” (Snow et al., 2004, p.11).

In this chapter, I will review the different lenses that social movement theories provide and identify those that could be applicable to the case of gilets jaunes. I address the question of whether and how the movement fits with, stretches, or frustrates the definitions and distinctions

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11 that scholars and practitioners have drawn on to analyse, explain, and inform prior instances of activism. This review shows that some theories fit better than others. In the sections that follow I identify the theories that fit best with the case of the gilets jaunes and that will provide the framework for analysis. A combination of social movement theories could help me understand the gilets jaunes movement even better. As van Stekelenburg and Klandermans (2009) state: “studying contentious politics in a more dynamic way would do justice to the theoretical and empirical richness of the concepts and could be crucial for gaining better insight into the processes at hand” (p.43).

The chapter is organized as follows. In Section 1 I discuss the (historical) development of social movement theory and why certain theories are more useful than others with regard to the challenge of analysing the gilets jaunes movement. In Section 2, I use Tilly’s theory on social movements and Coser’s theory on conflict to explain the role that conflict and framing mechanisms play in social movements. In Sections 3 and 4 I look into theories on grievances and collective identity that resonate with the case and provide helpful lenses with which to view and make sense of the gilets jaunes. Section 5 looks at protest from a dramaturgical perspective. More specifically, it reviews dramaturgy as a theory that can help sort out the role that social media has played as a stage and framing platform for performances in the gilets jaunes movement. Section 6 draws on the protest paradigm to provide a way to explain the mechanisms behind the external framing of a social movement through perspective of print media. In the concluding section I draw these insights together to present a framework for analysing the gilets jaunes as a social movement.

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2.1 Development of social movement theory

Meyer et al. (2002) divide social movements scholars into two groups: those who study social movements from the outside in (structural), and those who analyse them from the inside out (social-constructivist). The field of social movement theory experienced a period of development in response to the large demonstrations that were common and recurrent following the Second World War. During this period, social movements were primarily studied from the outside in, putting emphasis on relative deprivation via intergroup comparisons and political processes or external political forces. The focus on structural influences with regard to social movements resulted in many scholars arguing that social movements were solely based on grievances and relative deprivation (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013). Scholars focused on what motivated people to protest and explained the decision to protest in terms of the relationship between individuals and groups, as well as the grievances and perceived deprivation in relation to other groups that individuals became aware of as they related to different groups. “They demonstrate that when a group’s experience becomes relevant for one’s own experience – i.e. when the personal becomes political – motivation to protest increases” (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013, p.888). Social movements developed when individuals became mobilized by efforts of others to make them aware of their own deprivation. This is done by helping them to see their connection to a larger group that shared this deprivation, and by comparing this experience with this group to other groups in society. Closely linked to relative deprivation theory is social (in)justice theory, which explained mobilization via a focus on “the fairness of outcomes […] and of decision-making processes” (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013, p.888).

2.1.1 Resource mobilization and political opportunities

After some years, the theories about grievances, relative deprivation and social injustice were criticized, as scholars noted that some aggrieved groups do not protest at all. The focus of academic research shifted to efficacy, which emphasized “the individual’s expectation that it is possible to alter conditions or policies through protest” (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013, p.889). The key concepts in this approach are ‘group efficacy’, the belief that collective action can solve problems experienced by the group, and ‘political efficacy’, which focuses on whether the political route is effective in promoting social change (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013). This line of thinking focused still very much on external circumstances as a way to explain the development of social movements. Theory on resource mobilization moved in a similar direction and challenged the idea that joining a social movement was an irrational action, a view that had been suggested by traditional grievances theories (Klandermans, 1984). Resource mobilization theory “stressed the rationality of participation in social movements” and “emphasized the importance of structural factors, such as the availability of resources to a collectivity and the

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13 position of individuals in social networks, in explaining patterns of participation” (Klandermans, 1984, p.583).

In relation to the gilets jaunes, this theory would mean to pose questions about what resources were available at that moment the gilets jaunes became a social movement. What tools did participants in the movement have at their disposal as the movement emerged? There is somewhat of a mismatch between the gilets jaunes and resource mobilization theory, however, as the gilets jaunes do not use many resources, except for social media. The mismatch could be caused by the time in which the theory was formulated, a time where social media did not exist. Social media could make it easier for people to gather resources like transportation to protest locations or coffee for roundabout protesters. It has enabled a form of resource mobilization done by the participants themselves, instead of an organization that lobbies for and allocates resources. The gilets jaunes movement does not have the kind of formal organizational structure that has the ability to access various powerful resources, and there is no sudden change in the external resources that were available at the time the movement became active. Seeing how the gilets jaunes movement developed in such a way through the use of social media, however, could show that social media can be a resource that is crucial for the development of any social movement in this day and age.

Political opportunities theory also focused on external influences to explain the development of social movements. Proponents concentrated on the idea that “activists do not choose their goals, strategies, and tactics in a vacuum. Rather, the political context, […] sets the grievances around which activists mobilize, advantaging some claims and disadvantaging others.” (Meyer, 2004, p.128). The structure that activists finds themselves in influence the form that their agency takes. The case of the gilets jaunes is weak through the lens of this theory, as there was no shift in the structure of political opportunities at the time the movement grew. The only external influence that marked the emergence of the gilets jaunes was the introduction of a new fuel tax. This tax was one factor that stimulated political action by the gilets jaunes, but there was no corresponding opening in the political structure. It seems more like a trigger to express related grievances than a political opportunity that mobilized people to take political action. Therefore, this theory does not seem to fit well with the case of the gilets jaunes movement.

2.1.2 Collective identity and emotions

In the 1980s and 1990s, collective identity was explored as a more social-constructivist way to explain the motivation of participation in protest (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2009). Polletta & Jasper (2001) explained this shift in theory as “a response to gaps in dominant resource mobilization and political process models” (p.283). In their view, social movement theory needed to focus on the inside, on the protesters themselves. Resource mobilization was critiqued as being

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14 too economical and rational. Its focus on individuals as rational beings, constantly weighing costs and benefits, did not fit with the emotion that participants in protests exhibited. Political process models were similarly critiqued as too focused on external forces and contextual political processes (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013). Collective identity theory, by contrast, focused on the way people interacted and gave meaning to actions, claims and symbols.

Jasper and Polletta defined collective identity as “an individual’s cognitive, moral, and emotional connection with a broader community, category, practice, or institution” (Jasper & Polletta, 2001, p.285). Collective identity theory tries to combine outside-in and inside-out thinking by correlating grievances and motivations with emotions that are linked to external influences such as culture or with interaction with external actors such as the government. Emotions played a large part in this theory, especially in explaining the construction of interaction and meaning – the twin pillars of collective identity theory. This orientation puts the interaction between personal identity and institutional structure at the forefront of theory and, in this way, fits well with the gilets jaunes movement.

However, Jasper and Polletta criticize on leaning too much on collective identity when analysing social movements. “They [other scholars] have turned identity into a kind of residual category, describing what happens outside structures, outside the state, outside rational action” (Polletta & Jasper, 2001, p.285). Collective identity is not the sole determinant of whether a social movement will succeed or fail, but it remains a crucial feature to study. Moreover, collective identity develops in the contexts in which individuals make sense of their own identity, their group membership and the power struggles present in everyday society. A researcher who relies too much on collective identity, risks overlooking the different contexts, frameworks, narratives and sociohistorical events that influence the construction and reproduction of collective identity within a social movement. This is also a strong argument for the use of multiple theoretical perspectives for a complex case like the gilets jaunes movement.

This section reviewed some critical steps in the development of social movement theory. Different times have shown different focus points in this scholarly field. Reviewing different theories has shown me that resource mobilization theory and political opportunities theory would not fit well with the case of the gilets jaunes. However, theory on grievances and collective identity make interesting arguments that could further the understanding of the gilets jaunes movement. Section 2 will include theories on the mechanisms of a social movement and the conflict that lies at the heart of the matter, in order to develop more insights in the case of the gilets jaunes movement.

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2.2 The mechanisms of a social movement

The question of what defines a social movement has been central in the scholarly field of social movements. Some theories, like the resource mobilization or political opportunities theories, fall short in providing a way to respond to this question with regard to the gilets jaunes. From the preceding section, I carry theories on grievances and collective identity forward as a resource to address the question of whether the gilets jaunes is a social movement. In this section I add Tilly’s theory on social movement and Coser’s theory on conflict to my approach. Could these theories shed a light on the gilets jaunes movement? How is the movement, without an official organization, then organized? What kind of conflict can explain the gilets jaunes movement?

2.2.1 Campaigns, repertoires and WUNC-displays

In his effort to explain the emergence of social movements, Charles Tilly has added to the repertoire of analytic tools that can be used to recognize a social movement and to analyse the complex interactions that shape its development. Tilly suggests that we can recognize and analyse a social movement by looking at its campaigns, its repertoire, and the WUNC (worthiness, unity, numbers, commitment) displays that members perform (Tilly, 2008, p.120). Campaigns focus on three components of claims that a group is making: identity, standing and program. Identity highlights the demands that social movements make for recognition as a group. Standing emphasizes that this group belongs to a legitimate political category and program demands the “promotion of a certain set of outcomes” (Tilly, 2008, p.120). A social movement’s repertoire is the set of physical actions that the social movement undertakes to formulate, express and obtain their claims through a number of ways such as meetings, demonstrations, petitions or civil disobedience (Tilly, 2008). WUNC displays support these claims for recognition and change via forms of collective action that enforce emotions and give meaning to certain actions and claims. Tilly uses these aforementioned elements to distinguish between contentious performances and social movements, arguing that social movements represent a step further in the level of organization and strategy that differentiates them from contentious performances.

In Tilly’s approach, a social movement is a group of people that is trying to change a certain collective problem for the benefit of the group by, among other things, raising awareness of a problem as a problem that merits public attention and the group as deserving of some form of rectification. The collective problem for the gilets jaunes movement began with the newly introduced fuel tax. Although this tax got withdrawn weeks after the first protest, the gilets jaunes continued to exist when the initial collective problem seemed solved. The concessions of the government did not do much to lessen the numbers and the motivation of this social movement as it already moved on to other collective problems, such as the lack of purchasing power. The gilets jaunes participants built a collective identity that was more than enough to sustain the social movement, even when the claim that started the process got granted by the government. Could

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16 Tilly’s concepts of campaigns, repertoires and WUNC-displays show how the movement became more than a set of expressed grievances and collective problems? What kind of mechanisms are constructing the gilets jaunes movement?

2.2.2 Coser’s conflict

Social movements are based on a conflict, which is also the case for the gilets jaunes movement. The conflict that lies at the heart of a social movement can reveal something about the movement itself, the expressed grievances and demands and the role of different actors within the conflict. How is the conflict that is at the base of the gilets jaunes movement constructed? What kind of factors influence the perception of the conflict by the movement itself and by other actors? What sort of conflict social movements engage in depends on various factors such as grievances, claims, identity, government policy and behaviour, public opinion, state repression, historical, cultural and economic factors and so on. In order to make sense of various types of conflict, Coser differentiates between realistic and nonrealistic conflict, that are broadly based on the presence of obtainable goals and the way in which those goals are obtained (Coser, 1956). The differences between these two concepts could tell me something about the perception of a particular conflict by different sides. It could show the development of this particular social movement over time and the influences that are at play in the process of framing the movement.

“Conflict which arise from frustration of specific demands within the relationship and from estimates of gains of the participants, and which are directed at the presumed frustrating object, can be called realistic conflict, insofar as they are means toward a specific result” (Coser, 1956, p.49). A realistic conflict will stop to exist when the objective is reached or when “satisfying alternative ways to achieve his end” (Coser, 1956) are also optional. Think of it as a teenager asking their parents to go to McDonald’s. The nagging is rooted in a practical demand and will subside when their parents say yes (objective is reached) or when someone else takes them (alternative ways are found). Realistic conflicts are often seen as relatively orderly and organised. An example of a realistic conflict is a demonstration or strike organised by unions demanding wage increases or better working conditions.

“Nonrealistic conflicts, on the other hand, although still involving interaction between two or more persons, are not occasioned by the rival ends of the antagonists, but by the need for tension release of at least one of them” (Coser, 1956, p.49). Coser argues that nonrealistic conflict is more aggressive, less stable and less controllable. Nonrealistic conflicts are influenced by the expression of emotions within the conflict (Coser, 1956). To stay with the metaphor of an angsty teenager, a nonrealistic conflict would be acting out in school and getting into meaningless fights, whereas the root of the actual conflict could lie with, for example, the parents of the teenager getting divorced. The actual grievance remains undiscussed or hidden, and the conflict is often about

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17 another issue. ‘Irrational’ emotions usually run high in these kinds of situations. These emotions are perceived as irrational because the expressed conflict is not correlated with the underlying grievances. The influence of emotions in a conflict is thus often seen as a deflection of the actual grievances that are the cause of the conflict. This implies that a nonrealistic conflict (with emotions) could be a deflection of a realistic conflict (centred around the actual grievances), which can influence the framing surrounding the conflict.

However, a social movement can show signs of both conflicts at the same time. “Realistic conflict situations may be accompanied, especially where there are no adequate provisions for the carrying out of the struggle, by unrealistic sentiments which are deflected from their source.” (Coser, 1956, p.53). Perceiving conflicts as nonrealistic the moment emotions came into play, hides the very realistic conflict that can lie behind the former. It often obscures clear demands and makes the conflict of a social movement an easier target to dismiss. “We need to be wary, however, of linking reflex emotions to irrationality.” (Jasper & Polletta, 2004, p.416). Emotions are not reasons to dismiss certain goals or a social movement altogether. They can be very useful, as mobilization tactics or strategies to influence a certain outcome or the public opinion (Jasper & Polletta, 2004). I would argue that a combination of nonrealistic and realistic conflict is also the case with the gilets jaunes movement. Looking at the rapid changes in demand and the sudden outburst of (emotionally-laden) grievances, the conflict of the gilets jaunes shows both signs of realistic and nonrealistic conflict.

This section has talked about the mechanisms of a social movement and the conflict that lies at the base of a social movement. Tilly’s mechanisms could show the structure that characterizes the gilets jaunes movement. Analysing the discrepancies between realistic conflict and nonrealistic conflict and the role of emotions within this discrepancy, could tell us more about the influence of emotions within the gilets jaunes movement. The next section will focus on the grievances that ensure the mobilization and participation of people in a social movement.

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2.3 Grievances

In this section, I will examine theory on grievances which could help me in showing the important role grievances can play within a social movement. Theories on grievances have been around for quite some time, and often criticized as well. Prior theory on grievances was focused on the irrationality of grievances in social movements. Before the 1960s, social movements were seen as irrational and a form of deviant behaviour because they deviated from the dominant culture and power structures (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013). This point of view is dismissive of the legitimacy of social movement participants and the influence social movements can have on society. This critique is well-accepted nowadays; however, I would argue for a revision on the theory of grievances that focuses on the perception of grievances from different actors. Seeing how important the perception of certain problems can be, theory on grievances from this perspective can be very relevant for the analysis of the development of a social movement. Theory on the perception of grievances would be, in my opinion, crucial in order to understand participants and their process of making sense of the world slightly better. What kind of problems are being expressed by the gilets jaunes and how are they being expressed? How are those grievances framed by the movement and how do those grievances frame the movement itself as well?

Grievances are constructed in a relational way by groups of people and the way they perceive other groups (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013). When someone becomes aware of their situation and of the differences between theirs and someone else’s situation, a feeling of injustice, or privilege, can arise and grievances that express these feelings can begin to be defined. Throughout the last decades of the development of social movement theory, the concept of grievances has been treated as a constant factor in someone’s life that lack explanatory power with respect to the decision to mobilize and actively participate in protests (Simmons, 2014, p.514). Grievances have been seen to offer little insight into the mechanisms behind the development of social movements or the motivations of participants. Simmons (2014) disagrees with this critique, stating that understanding grievances will help in understanding mechanisms and the structures of social mobilization (p.514). The author uses the lens of giving meaning and making interpretations to study grievances within social movements. In doing so, Simmons moves away from the solely material focus that prior scholars had adopted in analysing the role that grievances play in the development of social movements. Simmons defines grievances as “the central claims a social movement is making – the practices, policies, or phenomena that movement members claim they are working to change (or preserve)” (Simmons, 2014, p.515). These claims are based on ideas, norms, and values that go beyond a slogan or a simple policy change. For the case of the gilets jaunes, Simmons reworking of grievance theory can help us appreciate how protests against the new tax on fuel were associated with more general criticisms of the tax system

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19 and demands for change. Focussing on the meaning and interpretation of grievances, the theories on grievances followed the major line of development in social movement theory by moving away from an exclusive focus on materiality and bringing context and meaning into social movement research. Especially focusing on the context and perception of grievances, this theory could shed a light on the expression of grievances by the gilets jaunes movement.

This section has discussed the role of grievances in social movements. The move from materiality to the context of grievances has ensured a broader understanding of the meaning of grievances and the influences it can have on collective identity and the perception of a social movement. Grievances can play a major role in determining the framing of the gilets jaunes movement, as well as external perception of the movement itself. The next section will talk about the role of collective identity in social movements. How do grievances become more than just personal problems and enable people to join together and create a social movement?

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2.4 Collective identity

When you look at a photo of a gilets jaunes protest and notice a sea of yellow vests, some would assume that the gilets jaunes have very high levels of collectivity. However, when you look a bit more closely, you would see how the perceptions on the collective unity amongst the gilets jaunes are conflicting. For example, it is one of the few movements that has extreme left and extreme right groups walking next to each other, shouting the same slogans. This seems contradictory, as they are ideologically miles apart but seem to be unified in the matter of grievances and claims. How can these groups with very different backgrounds stand next to each other? What is the glue that holds the movement together? Furthermore, how is this glue constructed and used in order to obtain (political) goals? In this section, I will examine theory on collective identity in order to get a better understanding of the gilets jaunes movement.

Klandermans (2014) defines collective identity as “an identity shared by members of a group or category” (p.2). The author makes a distinction between social identity, which entails the awareness of a person that they are a member of a certain group, and collective identity, which goes further than social identity and emphasizes the awareness of a shared membership of a certain group. “When a social identity becomes salient, there will be a shared collective identity and an increase in the strength of group identification” (Klandermans, 2014, p.4). This implies the recognition of people that other people are also a member of a certain group with certain shared values, ideas and norms (Klandermans, 2014). The emphasis on shared identity links to Melucci’s theory that interaction lies at the foundation of collective identity (Melucci, 1995). Without others and one’s own awareness of a certain identity and the interaction between people needed in order to reach that awareness, a social identity cannot become a collective identity. One needs to become aware of the fact that something is shared by others in order for an identity to become collective. In turn, in order to become a social movement, a collective identity need to become politically active. “Collective identities must politicize to become the engine of collective action” (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013, p.892).

2.4.1 Expression of collective identity

The focus on collective identities has also brought attention to the ways through which said identities are expressed. Jasper & Polletta (2001) describe these as “expressed in cultural materials—names, narratives, symbols, verbal styles, rituals, clothing, and so on—but not all cultural materials express collective identities” (p.285). Identities do not float free but are anchored materially in the way that the yellow vest anchor the identity of members of the gilets jaunes movement. Through this symbol, social movement participants can recognize their collaborators and make sense of their identity and the identity of the movement itself.

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21 Collective identity can be used in different ways when analysing social movements. It can create awareness of shared issues, as stated above, it can be a source of motivation during the development of a social movement and it can be used as a strategy by the movement’s activists (Jasper & Polletta, 2001). “Since mobilization does not always require pre-existing collective identities, activists’ efforts to strategically “frame” identities are critical in recruiting participants. “Frames” are the interpretive packages that activists develop to mobilize potential adherents and constituents” (Jasper & Polletta, 2001, p.291). For the case of the gilets jaunes, this could mean that collective identity is not just the glue that binds extreme right and extreme left together, collective identity could also be used as a strategic point or a source of motivation for others to join.

This section has analysed the role of collective identity within a social movement. Collective identity is constructed through the shared awareness of a social identity, which can result in a social movement through the politicization of collective identity. Collective identities are expressed through cultural materials and symbols, and can be used for various purposes, such as constructing appropriate behaviour at protests. How are identities within the gilets jaunes movement constructed and expressed? What do the gilets jaunes do in order to show their collective identity? This will be discussed further in section 5, which analyses the dramaturgy of protest and the different stages that are used for contentious performances. The expression of the aforementioned concepts through performances of actual behaviour on stages could tell us more about the construction and sense-making of these concepts by the gilets jaunes movement.

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2.5 Dramaturgy of protest

In this section, I will focus on the dramaturgical behaviour of social movement participants that could tell me something about the way in which these protesters construct concepts such as collective identity and grievances. By analysing behaviour in a theatrical way, the mechanisms behind and the consequences of certain behaviour, especially at protests, can become more explicit. What can protest behaviour, through a dramaturgical lens, tell me about the gilets jaunes? In what manner are grievances and collective identity expressed? This section will concentrate on performances used as a vehicle for storytelling and the stages those performances take place upon, specifically social media.

Protests, as many other forms of interaction and collective action, are performed by actors using cultural materials such as symbols, language, narratives and behaviour in order to interact with other actors. “An effectively scripted narrative defines compelling protagonists and frightening antagonists and pushes them through a series of emotionally laden encounters.” (Alexander, 2004, p.91). From a dramaturgical perspective, in order to reach a certain goal or express a certain claim, protestors need to construct and reproduce a certain (scripted) narrative. This enables them to interact with other participants, including actors outside of as well as inside the protest. Alexander sees this process as happening in a larger structure, or frame, that enables the performance to be understood by other actors: “In other words, social performances, like theatrical ones, symbolize particular meanings only because they can assume more general, taken-for-granted meaning structures within which their performances are staged.” (Alexander, 2004, p.91).

2.5.1 Storytelling

There is a variety of reasons for why it is useful to analyse a social movement in terms of the performances that make it up. Performances are ways in which actors tell each other stories and narratives through which they make sense of the world around them and their relation to other actors. Storytelling is a crucial factor in the construction of culture and identity within a group, like a social movement. “The experience of sharing personal accounts cements the underlying frames by which members understand the world.” (Fine, 1995, p.134). To tell each other stories means to share each other’s identities and to be able to relate to a stranger. If I tell you a story about how the last baker has left my village, the person I’m talking to can interpret the facts that I live in a village, that I support small businesses and that I have a negative experience with mass production and the lack of resources in rural areas. Maybe that person can relate and exchange their experiences regarding these topics, which in turn could further my ideas on the aforementioned concepts. Sharing stories creates topics and interactions that are seen as appropriate for the culture of a specific social movement. Thus, “Culture becomes a resource” (Fine, 1995, p.130), and continually develops through interactions and texts that reproduces this source and reconstructs it at the same time. This process is for example demonstrated through

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23 the many ways the gilets jaunes use social media as a source, ranging from coordination to the formulation of demands.

2.5.2 Stages in social movements

Dramaturgy analyses protests as performances by actors on stages (Benford, 1992). Actors are people that are involved in the conflict, like the protesters or the riot police, but could also include objects, such as the Arc de Triomphe, if they play a performative role in the narrative. Stages are the spaces in which actors come together that contribute to the symbolic character and meaning of their actions. Roundabouts served as stages in the gilets jaunes movement, for example, making the performances locally focused and underscoring the everyday character of their demands and grievances. Other stages were the large avenues where demonstrations took place and the online world of Facebook and other media platforms. Benford states: “social movements can be described as dramas in which protagonists and antagonists compete to affect audiences’ interpretations of power relations in a variety of domains, including those pertaining to religious, political, economic or lifestyle arrangements.” (1992, p.38).

This digital age has enabled social media as a performative stage, namely because information is unrestricted by space and time; “access to and familiarity with technology have become an important resource for a successful movement” (Harlow, 2011, p.228). The internet can both “facilitate offline activism” as well as “create new forms of activism and resistance” (Harlow, 2011, p.229). According to Harlow, offline activism needs online activism, where the latter often goes further than being solely a vehicle for creating awareness and mobilizing participants. Social media platforms can also make way for different protest techniques, such as documenting police brutality and subsequently using that to influence public opinion and the response of the state (Harlow, 2011).

Thus, seeing the internet as a stage implies that social media is more than a vehicle or a tool used by a social movement to spread information, but it can also be used as a strategical stage for the strategical development of a social movement.

[Social conflict] “requires control over the means of symbolic production, which suggests a stage, a setting, and certain elementary theatrical props. For social dramas, control over such means points to the need to create platforms for performance in the public imagination and, eventually, to create access to such media of transmission as television, cinema, newspapers, radio, and the Internet.” (Alexander, 2004, p.91).

Social media could have a central function to the identity of the movement. Controlling their own stages for the expression of grievances and identity, can be a manifestation of their identity, when you focus on the idea of control. Why do the gilets jaunes prefer social media above traditional

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24 media? What kinds of functions can social media have in the gilets jaunes movement? How does it influence the narratives being told in- and outside of the movement?

Section 5 has discussed the dramaturgy of protest, and focussed on the stages that can be used by social movements in order to formulate and express grievances and demands and mobilize and strategize protests events. Using social media as a stage for performances can have multiple consequences for the framing of a social movement. Although it could seem that social movements live in their own world, movements exist in a world that is larger than them. Newspapers are at the forefront of framing social movements and its protest events and subsequently influence public opinion and the responses of the state. In the next section, I will look into the protest paradigm, which analyse the focus points in newspaper articles when they talk about social movements. This could show the external influences that are at play in constructing the frame and narrative around a social movement. What kind of news is being covered? How are the gilets jaunes portrayed through the eyes of others, like journalists?

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2.6 Protest paradigm

This section builds of the preceding questions on the mechanisms that construct the frame of a social movement. A social movement is never alone in constructing their own frames, and other actors play important roles in its development. The concept of protest paradigm will show the mechanisms behind the construction of different perceptions of a movement from external actors, like newspapers. How do newspapers influence the public opinion about a particular social movement? What kind of consequences does this process have for a movement like the gilets jaunes?

The role of newspapers in society is to write about news and events that occur, or just to sell newspapers. This is done by journalists who, even if they try to be as neutral as possible, carry certain biases and blind spots with them when analysing social life. “The mass media constitute a crucial discursive site for the construction of reality that influences the process of public opinion formation.” (Papaioannou, 2015, p.37). An influential theory on the portrayal of news surrounding social movements, is the protest paradigm theory, formulated by Francis Lee. Lee examines the ways in which newspapers cover protests as a variable that influence the development of a movement (Lee, 2014, p.2726). This theory shows the external actors and factors that influence a particular movement and its perception by the public, which could also be the case for the gilets jaunes. Certain factors, such as the use of violence, location or identity of the journalists, can influence news coverage. Subsequently, the framing of news coverage can influence factors that influence the protests, such as the opinion of the public or the reaction of the antagonists of a particular social movement. News coverage acts can guide public opinion to readable and clickable articles. “Media coverage of protests results from the dynamic interaction between journalists and protester groups” (Lee, 2014, p.2726). Media is therefore not a neutral side, but an actor in the conflict that influences the development of a social movement. “Chan and Lee (1984) argued that the mainstream media are agents of social control – that is, they tend to uphold existing norms and values and support established institutions and systems” (Lee, 2014, p.2727). The protest paradigm is built upon the premises of the perception of the use of violence during protest events. “A news article is regarded as manifesting the protest paradigm to the extent that it emphasizes violence and disruption, excludes the protesters’ voices, and quotes statements from other sources that are primarily critical toward the protests” (Lee, 2014, p.2729). So, according to Lee, if the protest paradigm is present in the newspapers, that would imply that these newspapers only cover stories about violence at protests, and prefer the voices of other sources over the voices of participants. Papaioannou takes this theory furthers and emphasizes the “invocation of antagonistic public opinion” (Papaioannou, 2015, p.39). This means that news stories can influence the public in such a way that it creates contradictions between the protesters

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26 and the public, through “spotlighting the appearance and behaviours of protestors in a way that draws attention to their violations of law or opposition to mainstream values.” (Papaioannou, 2015, p.39).

Lee (2014) claims that “changes in the media and social environments have led to more diversified media coverage” (p.2728). The protest paradigm provides a way to analyse a diversified media that includes social media and flexible reporting (by whom and how) and the appearance of concepts such as ‘fake news’ that have changed the landscape of media in France, amongst other countries as well. Newspapers have grown more aware of their position and readers have become more critical of one-sided frames. However, framing remains part of news coverage, as framing remains a part of human behaviour and reporting news is conducted by humans.

Section 6 has focused on the external influences that have a role in the construction of perceptions of a social movement. The protest paradigm states that the portrayal of violence in newspapers articles and the preference of certain voices above others, have an effect on the (public) perception of a social movement. This paradigm could also exist amongst French newspapers. How do these French newspapers make sense of the gilets jaunes movement? How could that influence the framing of the gilets jaunes?

Chapter 2 has examined multiple social movement theories in order to construct a theoretical framework that will, combined with the gathered data, guide my analysis. Theory on grievances and collective identity would be most suitable for the case of the gilets jaunes movement, as both seem present at first glance and could reveal the inner workings of the gilets jaunes movement. Tilly’s theory on mechanisms on social movements and Coser’s theory on conflict could explain the structures of a movement. The dramaturgy of protest can describe the framing of narratives, storylines and (violent) behaviour that are present at gilets jaunes protests. Lastly, the protest paradigm can show me how the external perceptions are constructed through the frames of newspapers.

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3. Research Design

Chapter 3 will examine the design of my research into the case of the gilets jaunes movement. Section 1 will dive into the reasoning behind my research questions and the implications of those for my research on the gilets jaunes. In section 2, I will explain the practicalities of my research through the process of data gathering and the obstacles that challenged this research. Next, section 3 will discuss the methodological direction of my research and the process of coding. Lastly, section 4 will consider ethics, positionality and blind spots as a practicing researcher. The research into the social movement of the gilets jaunes is built upon the foundations of qualitative methodology. The case study that this thesis investigates is the question of ‘is the gilets jaunes movement a social movement?’. A case study entails the “intensive examination of the setting” (Bryman, p.67) of a particular situation, community or event. Using a case study design for this research helps to switch between theory and research easier, as both are important to make sense of particular case such as the gilets jaunes movement.

This movement is at the base a conflict, in which multiple actors coordinate actions to express grievances and push for change through the use of confrontational practices such as protest. The question remains whether the assemblage of forms of collective (inter)action and other activities undertaken by the gilets jaunes constitutes a social movement. This is a complex question. I have examined the puzzle from various angles, drawing on different data sources and on the work of a range of social movements theorists. By combining different perspectives derived from different theories, I try to show multiple facets of the conflict in which the gilets jaunes movement play a central role and to construct a portrait of the gilets jaunes. In trying to come to an understanding of the complexity that the gilets jaunes movement present to researchers, I have come across enough information for at least five theses. I only have time for one, and so I had to make choices in order to focus my research and analysis, and limit myself to certain subjects. These choices have been informed by the theory and research I have read and by the data itself, that suggests which features are important and interesting about the gilets jaunes.

3.0.1 Covid-19-related changes

Due to the present circumstances, the specific forms of qualitative research used in my thesis had to change quite a lot in the middle of the process, which reshaped my research substantially. Pre-corona, my research was centred around doing interviews and participant observations. This meant observing demonstrations, talking to people who were participating and trying to engage some in more in-depth interviews. I arranged places to stay in Paris and in a village close to Marseille, where I could go to a roundabout and observe participants of the gilets jaunes movement ‘in the field’ and engage with them formally or informally to enlighten me about their experiences. The contacts that I had arranged offered to help me as guides: to assist me in

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28 organizing an initial round of interviews and conversations and to even accompany me during my initial observations. The idea was to spend a month in France, divided between Paris and the southern regions. My theoretical framework leaned a lot on action and interaction, and how those could mediate the development from grievances to collective identity. The outbreak of Covid-19 steered my thesis quite suddenly in a different direction. In this new environment asking the question ‘is the gilets jaunes movement a social movement?’ became the guiding star in redesigning and conducting the research for this thesis. Due to the fact that my data gathering was compromised by this new research environment, my analysis leans on theory more that I would have wanted. That does not mean it is a ‘bad’ research, it just remains slightly theoretical in some places. Still, due to this digital age, it was relatively easy to stay on course and gather data about the movement of the gilets jaunes.

3.1 Research question

Out of the theoretical framework and my own curiosity, I decided to formulate my research question as following: Is the gilets jaunes movement a social movement? This question seems almost too obvious and could be considered a rhetorical question. However, it helped me build a frame in which different puzzle pieces can be brought together in a context in which they fit with each other. In preceding chapter, I drew on theory to elaborate this initial question in a series of sub-questions that provide a bridge from theory to empirical research. These sub-questions are:

- How are the grievances of the gilets jaunes framed? - How is the identity of the gilets jaunes framed?

- How are the mechanisms behind the movement framed? - How are protests of the gilets jaunes dramaturgically framed?

- How are the gilets jaunes framed from the perspective of outside media?

These questions will be answered by drawing on theory to analyse empirical data about the activities of the gilets jaunes and the responses that they have generated. The research question(s) has led me through the complex puzzle that is the gilets jaunes movement. It provides a red thread to hold on to, not in search for definite answers, but to make sense of this complicated social movement. With complex actors, events, interaction, processes of meaning-giving and sense-making, answering my main research question will be an almost impossible task. This movement is too complicated for one thesis, and I had to limit myself greatly in order to make sense of the subject.

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3.2 Data gathering

This section talks extensively about the process of data gathering. I will elaborate on the ways in which I came to the use of certain sources, which obstacles influenced this process and how certain critical moments set boundaries for the focus of my research.

Once the corona virus hit our corner of the world and restrictions came into place, my research plans, just as life itself, went online. After encountering difficulties with finding respondents for interviews, I decided to analyse newspaper articles. These difficulties were caused by several issues. The contacts that my contacts had were not extremely eager to participate in an interview. Due to corona, the movement physically died down and many participants had other worries to think about. Participants remained active on social media, which gave me the hope that I could use this channel for my research. However, Facebook did not allow me to distribute the link to a survey I had made (to make it easier for respondents to participate in interviews), because it held ‘offensive content’. Even more so, when I tried to post a message in Facebook-groups with gilets jaunes, my message did not get accepted by the moderators of those groups. In the end, I conducted three interviews, with relatively different sorts of people, as I will explain further in the next paragraphs.

3.2.1 Critical moments

Before I analysed the newspapers articles, the videos and interviewed my respondents, I decided to focus on four critical moments. In hindsight, this hindered my analysis somewhat, since I did not choose the ‘right’ moments that later on seemed less relevant for my research. I decided halfway through my data analysis process that the four critical moments I had chosen (17th_of

November 2018, 10th_{of December 2018, 16}th_{of February 2019 and 16}th_{of November 2019)}

covered too long of a period. In the end, I focused on the period between the first protest on the 17th_{of November 2018 and Macron’s speech on the 10}th_{of December 2018. This period took less}

than a month, but it was a crucial period for the development of the gilets jaunes and the public opinion. So, the initial four critical moments became three: the first protest (17th_{of November}

2018), the third protest (1st_{of December 2018), and the moment of Macron’s speech (10}th_of

December 2018). The newspaper articles I analysed only consisted of the moment of the first protest and the moment of Macron’s speech. For the third protest I relied primarily on data from the videos and the interviews. Of course, through reading the newspaper articles I gathered some written data about the third protest as well. The three critical moments that organized and bounded my research are described in detail below. The second protest was not picked out as a critical moment, because the consequences of the third moment were seemingly larger and more influential than the second protest. Some sources talk about the second and third protest as the same event, since they both consisted of high levels of violence and destruction. However, the third protest was more influential in shaping the public opinion and response of the state.

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30 1. First protest. On the 17th_{of November 2018, the first protest of the gilets jaunes}

movement came into existence. Months before, people talked on social media and signed petitions against the fuel tax, which was the preliminary grievance that motivated people to protest. The protests took place on roundabouts, in front of shopping boulevards and some factories, on highways and other important roads, in large and small cities. It was not clear what exactly was going on and what the plan behind the protests was (there was often not one). Violence was limited, and a lot of first-time, middle and old-aged people participated. 75% of the French population was supportive of the movement during the first two weeks following this protest (cnews.fr, June 11th_{, 2019). Politicians ranging from}

left to right were quick in supporting the movement through publicly made statements. 2. Third protest. On the 1st_{of December 2018, the third Saturday of protest took place. At}

this point, the gilets jaunes had gotten the attention of people in France as well as internationally. France seemed like a country in a state of emergency. Unlike the first protest, high levels of violence and destruction were common. The third protest seemed to constitute a turning point and public and political support for the movement declined thereafter. The government and president Macron seemed unclear about what to do to appease this movement.

3. Macron’s speech. On the 10th_{of December 2018, president Macron finally held a national}

speech about the situation in his country. This speech was watched by 23 million people worldwide. During the speech, Macron announced policy measures that would increase the purchasing power of those with the lowest incomes, increase the minimum pay by 100 euros each month and increase retirement payments. Before this speech, measures to reverse the fuel tax had already been taken. The gilets jaunes were most unhappy about the refusal to reinstall an old law taxing direct wealth for the richest French citizens. Macron’s speech did not have a large effect on the continuation of the gilets jaunes movement.

3.2.2 Newspaper articles

After selecting the critical moments that put boundaries to my research focus, I began gathering articles. When I started this process, I still had the initial four critical moments in mind. This has meant that I have analysed, or coded, way more articles than I used for my analysis, as I later on decided to change the four critical moments to the three that are stated above. Through the NexisUni program, I selected articles from the three different newspapers of my choosing, Le

Monde, Le Figaro and Ouest-France. I added the online versions of these newspapers as well (with

the exception of Ouest-France, whose online version was not available through the program): Le

Monde.fr and Le Figaro Online.In France, like many other countries, newspapers can be roughly divided by their (political) perspectives and targeted audiences. Le Monde is seen as an elitist and

The Yellow Thread: A Discourse Analysis of the Gilets Jaunes Movement in France