Higher education in the defence of human rights: The media framing of academic activism
Universities and other higher education institutions are key players in implementing a transformative sustainability approach based on education about, through and for human rights. This approach therefore requires not only knowledge or experience of human rights in academic settings, but also direct action in the fight for those rights.Although this approach to higher education is particularly essential in the current historical moment, characterised by polarisation and misinformation, it is not always easy to interpret and implement within a neoliberal university framework governed by the economic rationality of profit-driven management. In order to contribute to a greater understanding of the role of higher education in human rights, this contribution presents a thematic analysis of 88 articles from the Spanish and Swedish press focusing on the media framing of academic activism in relation to human rights violations committed by Israel in Gaza. The results of this research discuss and illustrate categorical frameworks present in media framing that problematise and question the legitimacy of activism in the university sphere, and consequently academic actions for human rights as an educational issue. These types of media frames coexist and contrast with a type of frames that recognises university demonstrations and calls for a boycott against Israel as part of higher education's mission to resist and oppose all types of human rights violations.
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