The Use of Newspaper Data in the Study of Collective Action
Abstract
Studying collective action with newspaper accounts of protest events, rare only 20 years ago, has become commonplace in the past decade. A critical literature has accompanied the growth of protest event analysis. The literature has focused on selection bias—particularly which subset of events are covered—and description bias—notably, the veracity of the coverage. The “hard news” of the event, if it is reported, tends to be relatively accurate. However, a newspaper's decision to cover an event at all is influenced by the type of event, the news agency, and the issue involved. In this review, we discuss approaches to detecting bias, as well as ways to factor knowledge about bias into interpretations of protest event data.
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Online databases reduce selection bias by gathering wider news sources.
“Online databases reduce selection bias by gathering wider news sources (Earl et al. 2004).”
From WHEN BLACK MOVEMENTS MATTER: CONTROLLING IMAGES AND BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS IN MEDIA ATTENTION TO U.S. POLICE KILLINGS (2024) · cites this paper as Earl et al. 2004
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- Authors
- Earl, J., Martin, A., McCarthy, J. D., & Soule, S. A.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- Venue
- Annual Review of Sociology
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2004-08-01
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 65-80
- ISSN
- 0360-0572 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-2115
- OpenAlex
- W2048569019
- Cited by
- 1,074
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 34 · 2025: 74 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 106 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 60 · 2020: 64 · 2019: 83 · 2018: 88 · 2017: 46 · 2016: 74 · 2015: 51 · 2014: 46 · 2013: 42 · 2012: 39
- FWCI
- 17.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annual Review of Sociology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Studies and Communication
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
- Social Sciences › General Social Sciences › Computational and Text Analysis Methods
- Keywords
- collective action, protest events, media coverage, selection bias, media bias, protest event analysis, media framing
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