Doctoral Dissertation Grant: Reflections of Success in Media Coverage

这项研究解决了三个研究问题。首先，什么时候社会运动组织（SMOs）最能获得媒体的关注，并让他们喜欢的信息得到报道？其次，随着时间的推移，哪些组织、战略和制度因素影响了SMOs在使用媒体方面的成功？第三，特定的游戏在利用大众媒体接触更广泛的用户方面有多成功？本研究主要关注三组因素（自变量）：社会运动组织的特征；媒体组织的特征；以及社会运动行动所处的社会和政治环境。研究设计通过使用档案数据分析、历史记录检查和访谈来对数据进行三角测量。档案资料和历史记录将被用来研究SMOs的结构，每个SMOs用于吸引媒体关注的资源（人力和财政），以及每个SMOs用于在媒体渠道上获得其首选信息的策略。研究人员也将与过去和现在的社运人士进行访谈，以确定社运人士是否以及如何将他们与记者互动的经验纳入他们现有的媒体策略，以及社运人士如何调整他们的媒体策略和讯息，以应对反对派和结盟的社运人士。由于大众传媒由不同类型的网点组成，有不同的受众和利基，研究人员将研究各种媒体组织的资源、新闻规范和惯例以及故事制作过程如何影响报道。为了分析这三个因素，研究人员将对一直报道堕胎问题的记者/记者和编辑/制片人进行采访。这项研究的因变量是媒体的成功。为了通过提供一种更细致的方法来衡量媒体的成功，以扩大当前的文献，研究人员将采用一种认识到时间和横截面变化的抽样策略。首先，她将以1980年至2000年堕胎辩论中的关键时刻为例；这些关键时刻代表着SMOs更有可能获得媒体报道的时刻。其次，她将以跨部门媒体为样本，包括《纽约时报》、《时代》、《国家》、《国家评论》、《女士》、《旅居者》，以及ABC、CBS和NBC的全国广播。不同的媒体有不同的目标受众，因此，SMO可能会在一个媒体上得到报道，而在另一个媒体上得不到报道。此外，不同的渠道对受众关注度的要求也不同。这项研究至少从三个方面拓宽了我们的知识面。首先，由于研究设计采用了多种方法，并考察了多个层次的分析，研究人员可以对SMOs，媒体组织以及更大的社会和政治环境之间的相互作用提供详细的分析。这样就可以研究这些相互作用是如何影响媒体报道的。其次，她将考虑SMOs如何调整他们的媒体策略和与对手和盟友SMOs相关的首选信息。最后，她将研究随着时间的推移，国有企业、大众媒体和更大的社会和政治环境之间的关系。随着时间的推移分析这些关系，研究人员可以在更大的社会和政治背景下比较SMO及其策略，以确定SMO是否以及如何将其从与记者和记者的互动中吸取的经验教训纳入其策略和结构，并评估媒体策略和信息在动态环境中的有效性。

The study addresses three research questions. First, when are social movement organizations (SMOs) best able to garner media attention and get their preferred messages covered? Second, what organizational, strategic, and institutional factors influence SMOs' success in using the media over time? Third, how successful are particular SMOs at using mass media to reach a broader audience? This research focuses on three sets of factors (independent variables): characteristics of social movement organizations; characteristics of media organizations; and the social and political environment in which social movement action is embedded. The research design triangulates the data through the use of archival data analysis, the examination of historical accounts, and interviews. Archival data and historical accounts will be used to examine how the SMOs are structured, the resources (human and financial) each dedicates to garnering media attention, and the strategies each uses to get its preferred messages in media outlets. The researcher also will conduct interviews with past and current activists to determine whether and how activists incorporate the lessons they learn from interacting with journalists into their existing media strategy, as well as how activists adjust their media strategies and messages in relation to oppositional and allied SMOs. Because mass media consists of different types of outlets that have different audiences and niches, the researcher will examine how the resources, journalistic norms and routines, and the story production process in a range of media organizations affect coverage. In order to analyze these three factors, the researcher will conduct interviews with journalists/reporters and editors/producers who consistently cover the abortion issue. The dependent variable in the study is media success. In an effort to expand the current literature by offering a more nuanced approach to measuring media success, the researcher will employ a sampling strategy that is cognizant of temporal and cross-sectional variation. First, she will sample critical moments in the abortion debate from 1980 to 2000; these critical moments represent times when it is more likely that SMOs will get media coverage. Second, she will sample a cross section of media outlets, including the New York Times, Time, Nation, National Review, Ms., Sojourners, and the national broadcasts from ABC, CBS, and NBC. Different media outlets have different target audiences and as such an SMO may get coverage in one outlet but not another. Moreover, different outlets command different levels of audience attention. This research contributes to broader knowledge in at least three ways. First, because the research design employs a variety of methods and examines multiple levels of analysis, the researcher can offer a detailed analysis of the interactions among SMOs, media organizations, and the larger social and political environment. This allows an examination of how these interactions affect media coverage. Second, she will consider how SMOs adapt their media strategies and preferred messages in relation to opponents and allied SMOs. Finally, she will examine the relationships among SMOs, mass media outlets, and the larger social and political environment over time. Analyzing these relationships over time allows the researcher to compare the SMOs and their strategies in a larger social and political context to determine whether and how an SMO incorporates the lessons it learns from its interactions with journalists and reporters into its strategies and structures, and to evaluate how effective media strategies and messages are in a dynamic environment.