Social scientist Nikos Smyrnaios, after examining 1,271 online news articles, argues that French media coverage of the October 2026 cost-of-living protests systematically prioritized violent incidents over the movement's core social demands. Smyrnaios highlights that the term "urban violence" is a security-originated construct designed to strip protests of their political substance and reframe them as mere criminal acts. By focusing on property damage and scapegoating youth from marginalized neighborhoods, authorities and media outlets shift the discourse away from deep-seated economic injustices. While such narratives align with far-right agendas, the researcher notes that the strategy's effectiveness is constrained by widespread public distrust in traditional media and the enduring dominance of material social concerns in the national debate.