Strategies, Stories, and the Quality of News Coverage of the Civil Rights Movement

• In Event: 242 - Regular Session. Media and Social Movements

Abstract

This paper examines how and why the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1960s was covered in national newspapers and the influence of strategy on coverage. We analyze news media treatment by way of long runs of coverage of seven civil rights and civil rights-related organizations, each of which found itself in the news for a long unbroken series of articles during the decade. We seek to explain differences in these runs in the quality of their coverage, including whether the organization’s demands appeared in the articles and whether the coverage was related to issues relevant to the organization, across organizations and at the article level. Elaborating a story-centered approach, we argue that a main strategic route to substantive coverage is for movements to mimic and challenge institutional political actors and processes, such as by contesting elections, preempting legislative processes, and launching court cases. Coverage subjects not expected to be substantive include investigations, trials, violent opposition, and occupations. We also argue that the type of article in which the organization appears influences the type of coverage. Through comparative and logistic regression analyses, we find support for our arguments, though each of these matters in different ways. We draw some implications of our research in the conclusion.

Authors

• Edwin Amenta, University of California-Irvine

• Thomas Alan Elliott, University of California-Irvine

• Nicole Clorinda Shortt, University of California-Irvine

• Amber Celina Tierney, University of California-Irvine

• Didem Turkoglu, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Burrel James Vann, University of California-Irvine