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

这项研究旨在完成对抗议和示威报道中选择偏见的三个城市的比较。它将美国的州首府与德国的州首府以及国家首府进行了比较。这项研究与社会运动和集体行动的理论联系在一起，这些理论强调制度化和非制度化政治形式之间的互动。这些理论使大众媒体在传播抗议团体的信息和形成对其重要性的评价方面发挥了核心作用。这项研究系统地考察了大众媒体报道示威和抗议活动的方式，并与来自官方来源的关于这些事件的信息进行了比较。拟议的研究将有助于民主理论，这些理论侧重于抗议在使大量人能够表明他们的关切并说服其他人相信他们的事业的重要性方面所起的作用。它还将扩大有关大众媒体在传播有关抗议的新闻以及鼓励其他人参与和压制抗议事业方面所起作用的理论。关于报道中的偏见的性质和程度的调查结果也将产生重要的方法论贡献。这些发现将有助于研究人员，他们现在依赖报纸报道作为他们关于抗议和示威的主要信息来源，而不知道偏见的方向。

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.