News Coverage of Conflict Involving Government and Factors Affecting its Frequency

• In Event: Explaining News Content

Abstract

The public needs to be aware of conflict in order to effectively participate in the democratic process. This study examined how frequently news stories about conflict involving government appeared in the coverage of 10 competing for-profit and non-profit online sites in five cities, and what factors were most influential in increasing the chance of such coverage. Conflict stories that involved government made up about nearly 19 percent of the sampled 491 stories. They were best predicted by a reporter’s priority for stories about conflict, by the reporter’s overall workload, and by the non-profit status of the news organization. Study implications for the normative role of news media to enable citizen participation are that news organizations should deploy more resources to such coverage, and especially should permit or require reporters who are more experienced in covering such stories to do more of them.

Authors

• Jan Boehmer, University of Miami

• Serena Carpenter, Michigan State U

• Fred Fico, Michigan State U