Comparative Research on Selection Bias in Media Coverage of Protests and Demonstrations

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This study is designed to complete a three-city comparison of selection bias in the coverage of protests and demonstrations. It compares a state capitol in the United States with one in Germany and with the national capitol. The research is tied to theories of social movements and collective action that emphasize the interaction among institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms of politics. Those theories give a central place to the role of the mass media in spreading the message of protesting groups and shaping evaluations of their importance. The research systematically examines the ways in which the mass media report demonstrations and protests compared to information about those events from official sources. The proposed research will contribute to theories of democracy that focus on the role of protest in enabling large numbers of people to demonstrate their concerns and to persuade others of the importance of their cause. It will also enlarge theories about the role of the mass media in spreading news about protest and in both encouraging others to take up the cause and to suppress it. There is also an important methodological contribution that will result from its findings about the nature and extent of bias in coverage. These findings will aid researchers who now rely on newspaper reports as their primary source of information on protests and demonstrations without knowing the directions of bias.