Protest Event Analysis and Related Topics

8/11/2019 Protest Event Analysis and Related Topics

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Protest Event Analysis and

Related TopicsUsing Newspaper Data for

Qualitative Content Analysis


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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


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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


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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


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Unit is EVENT, not Article

One Article

Event 1

Event 2

Event 3

One EventArticle 1

Article 2

Article 3


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Getting from Articles to Events

Organize the material by timeWork 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


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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


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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 periodsDo fancier statistics after you do the basics


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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


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Can You Sample?

Newspapers can produce too much data

You can devise a sample that fits the issue

random sampling doesnt 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

Documents

Protest Event Analysis and Related Topics