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From bias to coverage: What explains how news organizations treat social movements
Author(s) -
Amenta Edwin,
Elliott Thomas Alan,
Shortt Nicole,
Tierney Amber Celina,
Türkoğlu Didem,
Vann Burrel
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
sociology compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1751-9020
DOI - 10.1111/soc4.12460
Subject(s) - newspaper , scholarship , social movement , social media , public relations , collective action , sociology , politics , action (physics) , political science , movement (music) , media coverage , focus (optics) , media studies , law , philosophy , physics , optics , quantum mechanics , aesthetics
Why do newspapers cover social movement actors, and why is this coverage sometimes favorable? Early scholarship saw the news media mainly as a source of data on collective action, and sought to ascertain its biases, but scholarship has increasingly focused directly on why movements gain coverage, especially coverage that can advance their goals. To understand why and how newspapers cover movement actors, we start with the insight that movements rely on the news media for many reasons, but their coverage is largely in the control of news institutions. In this review, we focus on perspectives that specify 3‐way interactions between the characteristics of newspapers, social movement actors, and the social and political contexts, but we begin with how news media institutions are organized. We conclude with suggestions for future research that take advantage of the digital revolution of the last generation.