Politics
How News Media is Describing the Incident at the U.S. Capitol
How Media Outlets Describe the Incident at the U.S. Capitol
Was it a riot? An insurrection? Or was it simply a protest?
The January 6, 2021 incident at the U.S. Capitol was widely covered in news media—however, the type of language used to describe it varied greatly from publication to publication.
Popular news media has a major impact on how society at large perceives major events. To learn more about the language used in recent coverage, we analyzed over 180 articles from Alexa’s top-ranked news websites in the United States. Here’s what we found.
Most Common Descriptions: The Event
From riot to rampage, descriptions used by news media of the incident at the U.S. Capitol were all over the map:
| ↓ Event descriptor | Yahoo | CNN | NYT | Fox | WaPo | Breitbart | Epoch Times | BBC | BI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riot | 6 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 10 | 7 |
| Storm | 9 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| Breach | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 3 | 1 |
| Siege | 6 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 4 | ||
| Attack | 3 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | |
| Insurrection | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |||
| Assault | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Rampage | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Invasion | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
| Unrest | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
The most commonly used description was riot, followed by storm. On the other end of the spectrum were the less-frequent terms such as insurrection, assault, rampage, and invasion.
Interestingly, Yahoo News, Business Insider, and BBC used siege, attack, and insurrection more often as compared to Breitbart, Epoch Times, and Fox News. The Epoch Times also described the event as a breach more times than any other outlet.
Most Common Descriptions: The Participants
The participants in the incident were identified in various ways, reflecting the variation seen in describing the incident.
| ↓ Participants | Yahoo | CNN | NYT | Fox | WaPo | Breitbart | Epoch Times | BBC | BI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mob | 12 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 11 | ||
| Rioters | 6 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Protesters | 1 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 5 | 1 | ||
| Trump supporters | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | ||
| Pro-Trump mob | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||
| Pro-Trump rioters | 3 | 2 | 5 | ||||||
| Insurrectionists | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||
| Demonstrators | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Participants | 2 | ||||||||
| Extremists | 3 |
In alignment with the usage of riot, the most common descriptions for participants were mob and rioters, followed by protesters. The frequency of use of Trump supporters comes as no surprise, especially since many of the participants are known to have attended the ‘Stop the Steal’ Trump rally preceding the event.
While most outlets referred to the crowd as protesters in the events leading up to the storming of the Capitol building, not all used that term to describe the people who entered the Capitol building. Fox News, Breitbart, and Epoch Times used protesters more often than any other news media outlet. In fact, these three outlets account for 28 of the 37 news articles in which the term protesters appeared.
On the other hand, the term pro-Trump rioters—which was used by Yahoo News, Business Insider, and CNN—did not appear in any articles by Fox News, Breitbart, or Epoch Times.
Tonal Differences
While some media outlets stuck to relatively neutral descriptors, others used unconventional terms to describe both the incident as well as those involved.
The New York Times and the Washington Post, for example, generally adhered to neutral language. They frequently described the event as a siege and a riot, and those involved as the mob and rioters.
The Epoch Times and Breitbart employed terms like protesters and alleged Trump supporters in discussing the individuals involved.
On the other hand, Yahoo News called it an insurrection carried out by militant supporters of President Trump, and Business Insider talked of a pro-Trump assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) potentially reflects how the event was perceived outside of the United States. Terms like riot and stormed appeared most commonly in BBC coverage of the incident. The participants were evenly identified as rioters, Trump supporters, protesters, and more often as the mob.
The Impact of Media Coverage
The influence of news media on how the public perceives events is undeniable. In fact, 88% of surveyed Americans consider the news an essential tool to keep informed about public affairs.
From a riot caused by rioters to an insurrection by President Trump’s militant supporters, the way different media outlets analyze the U.S. Capitol incident impacts what their respective audiences take away from it.
Note: Publications that focus primarily on sports, entertainment, and business were omitted from this analysis. We analyzed 20 articles from each publication that related directly to the Capitol situation and resulting coverage.
Countries
Ranked: Share of Global Arms Exports in 2022
The U.S. is the biggest weapons exporter in the world, but which other countries take up a significant share of global arms exports in 2022? And how has that share changed over time?
Ranked: Share of Global Arms Exports 2018–2022
In 2022, global military budgets hit $2.2 trillion, an eighth consecutive year of increase.
Part of those budgets were used for the procurement of arms, but which countries are major weapons suppliers, and how do they influence the global arms trade?
We chart out the top 10 countries with the biggest share of global arms exports using data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Which Country Exports the Most Weapons?
The U.S. is the biggest weapons exporter, accounting for 40% of the total volume of international arms transfers between 2018–2022. Nearly one-fifth of these exports headed to Saudi Arabia, and other significant amounts went to Japan (8.6%) and Australia (8.4%).
Below we rank the biggest weapons exporters by share of total volume traded in 2018–2022, as well as their growth or decline from trends recorded in 2013–2017.
| Rank | Country | % share of global arms exports (2018-2022) | % change between 2013-17 & 2018-22 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 40% | +14% |
| 2 | 🇷🇺 Russia | 16% | -31% |
| 3 | 🇫🇷 France | 11% | +44% |
| 4 | 🇨🇳 China | 5% | -23% |
| 5 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 4% | -35% |
| 6 | 🇮🇹 Italy | 4% | +45% |
| 7 | 🇬🇧 UK | 3% | -35% |
| 8 | 🇪🇸 Spain | 3% | -4% |
| 9 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 2% | +74% |
| 10 | 🇮🇱 Israel | 2% | -15% |
| N/A | 🌐 Rest of World | 9% | N/A |
Russia (16%) and France (11%) rank close together, followed by China (5%) and Germany (4%) to round out the top five major arms exporters.
However France’s export volumes grown considerably (+44%) from the previous five-year period, thanks to big sales to India, which included 62 combat aircraft and four submarines, one-third of all French weapons trade. This has resulted in France leapfrogging the U.S. as India’s second-largest weapons supplier after Russia.
On the other hand, Russia’s exports by volume has decreased (-31%) even before sanctions kicked in after the invasion of Ukraine. Its biggest trade partners, India and China, have prioritized developing their own weapons industries.
South Korea’s Surging Weapons Exports
Another country whose arms sales are skyrocketing is South Korea, which ranks 9th in the overall share of global arms exports, but has seen a 74% increase in its export volumes. Key recipients include the Philippines, India, and Thailand.
South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has pledged to grow his country into the world’s fourth largest arms exporter by 2027.
Interestingly, South Korea is one of three countries which is both a top-10 arms exporter and importer (along with China and the U.S.) as it has many takers for domestically produced military equipment, while simultaneously being reliant on American-produced long-range missiles and advanced combat aircraft.
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