Protest Event Analysis and Related Topics

1. Protest Event Analysis and Related Topics Using Newspaper Data for Qualitative Content Analysis

2. What is Protest Event Analysis • Standard method for studying protests • Uses newspaper reports as source of data • Research available on the limitations • Fairly standard coding schemes • Can examine protest campaigns over time • Can examine other features of the events • Special methods for quantitative analysis

3. Choosing Data Source(s) • Need a thorough, contemporaneous source • Tilly originally used historical annual reports • Then adapted to using newspapers • Start with reliable “newspaper of record” • Can use multiple newspapers to reduce bias • Method is very labor-intensive but powerful

4. Selecting Data from Source • First studies used New York Times INDEX • printed volumes available in libraries by year • easy to search, but limited information • Then began full searches of newspapers • more complete information • very labor-intensive • can use index to check, help locate articles

5. Problems with Online Databases • What editions does the database include? • Data depends on search terms • search term may not match your topic • cannot tell what you are missing • also generates a lot of junk • NEVER use raw article counts • database may have multiples of same article • may generate irrelevant uses of search term • even really basic uses require hand checking

6. Unit is EVENT, not Article Event 1 One Article Event 2 Event 3 One Event Article 1 Article 2 Article 3

7. Getting from Articles to Events • Organize the material by time • Work with a block of time (3-6 months) • Sort the articles into events, chronologically • Single event and single article • Single event and multiple articles • Multiple events in single article • Summarize by hand as needed • Enter data one record per EVENT • record # articles per event • enter event summary plus other data needed

8. Using Multiple Sources • Make one database for all sources, events • Have one record for each event • Have a yes/no field for each newspaper • Record whether event is reported in each source • This provides most complete event count • Permits comparison of different sources

9. Simple Visual Data Analysis • Plot the frequency of events over time • requires collapsing into larger time units • Build week, month, year codes in sorted query • Export to Excel and play with charts • Relate peaks in data to known events • Relate qualitative changes to time periods • Do fancier statistics after you do the basics

10. Newspaper Coverage Analysis • Can use similar methods to examine newspaper coverage directly (not events) • collect newspaper articles over a time period • code article type and aspects of the content • code information on newspaper source • Newspapers provide contemporaneous account, so used for time-based analysis • Use to examine moral panics, changes in awareness or attitudes, etc. over time

11. Can You Sample? • Newspapers can produce too much data • You can devise a sample that fits the issue • random sampling doesn’t work well • usually need saturation to make the argument • can sample by time periods, with care • Be careful about sampling too narrowly • Do not use preconceived ideas to limit sample • Check potential data and then set parameters • Collect broadly, then sample for coding