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This research analyzes mass media coverage of The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and Stop Enabling Online Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), two landmark 2018 bills that changed how sexual content is moderated by internet service providers in the United States. Using critical discourse analysis, I compare the framing of 101 news stories about FOSTA-SESTA published in mainstream U.S. newspapers, feminist media, and LGBTQ magazines over the course of 7 years. Findings describe coverage of online sex work, online child sexual exploitation, and free speech concerns that preceded and followed the landmark ruling from 2017 to 2023. I show FOSTA-SESTA's progression as a topic of discourse during the 2020 presidential election and compare differences between coverage in ideologically diverse U.S. media. While mainstream news originally supported FOSTA-SESTA's efforts to restrict the tech industry and prevent online child sexual exploitation, alternative media tended to present skeptical arguments that supported sex workers and other marginalized communities. Journalism industry interventions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an increasingly important approach for critical-qualitative communication scholarship. This essay has three purposes: (1) to explain the history and applications of CDA, (2) to provide an empirical snapshot of how CDA has been used in journalism studies research, and (3) to provide a methodological intervention for improving CDA research in our field. An exploratory analysis of 17 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication journal articles reveals that CDA research on journalism topics has focused on race and ethnicity, analyzed mainstream print news outlets, and applied CDA as a method in its own right. Authors have neither adequately defined discourse for readers nor have they sufficiently explained their coding procedures. Journalism scholars must improve the transparency of our coding methods, and we must examine ideological formations beyond dominant-hegemonic discourses. By analyzing mainstream journalism, alternative media, and online media side-by-side, CDA researchers can build stronger theory about ideology's role in journalistic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]