TY - JOUR
T1 - Cascades of coverage
T2 - Dynamics of media attention to social movement organizations
AU - Seguin, Charles
N1 - Funding Information:
The author acknowledges the support of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship while this research was being conducted. He thanks his adviser, Kenneth (Andy) Andrews, for his unflagging support of this project. He also thanks Howard Aldrich, Alison Appling, Chris Bail, Shawn Bauldry, Frank Baumgartner, Michael Biggs, Neal Caren, Brandon Gorman, Shane Eliot, Aseem Hasnain, Jonathan Horowitz, Ali Kadivar, Danielle Kane, Charles Kurzman, Francois Nielsen, Jordan Radke, David Rigby, Didem Torkoglu, Tiantian Yang, Haj Yazdiha, the audience at the Empirical Applications of Mathematical Models at the ASA meeting in Denver 2012, members of the Culture and Politics Workshop at the University of North Carolina, and members of the Inequality Workshop at the University of North Carolina for their helpful comments and guidance. This paper would not have been possible without data collected by Edwin Amenta and Neal Caren.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author 2015.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - Gaining attention in the mass media is a key goal of many social movement organizations (SMOs). The dominant explanation of media attention to SMOs is that the media act like a filter, selecting some types of SMOs and events for attention, and ignoring others based on characteristics of these SMOs, events, and their political environment. In contrast to this "bias model," I argue that some media attention to SMOs is characterized by positive feedback, or rich-get-richer processes: past media attention increases the likelihood of future media attention through its effect on the SMO and on other media outlets. Like other positive feedback systems, media attention can be path dependent, is routinely punctuated by large cascades of attention to previously obscure SMOs, and can be contingent on "accidents" of history: at critical junctures, individuals, organizations, and events have the potential to radically impact the extent of media attention to their movements and organizations. Media attention to SMOs can also become decoupled from the types of events that initially sparked their media attention, becoming spokes-organizations for their movements and receiving media attention for events and stories that they themselves are not involved. In support of this theory, I first show that media attention is, similar to other positive feedback processes, power-law distributed across SMOs using two national (US) data sets. I then illustrate the process of positive feedback in media attention through a case study of the Black Panther Party's rise to prominence in media attention.
AB - Gaining attention in the mass media is a key goal of many social movement organizations (SMOs). The dominant explanation of media attention to SMOs is that the media act like a filter, selecting some types of SMOs and events for attention, and ignoring others based on characteristics of these SMOs, events, and their political environment. In contrast to this "bias model," I argue that some media attention to SMOs is characterized by positive feedback, or rich-get-richer processes: past media attention increases the likelihood of future media attention through its effect on the SMO and on other media outlets. Like other positive feedback systems, media attention can be path dependent, is routinely punctuated by large cascades of attention to previously obscure SMOs, and can be contingent on "accidents" of history: at critical junctures, individuals, organizations, and events have the potential to radically impact the extent of media attention to their movements and organizations. Media attention to SMOs can also become decoupled from the types of events that initially sparked their media attention, becoming spokes-organizations for their movements and receiving media attention for events and stories that they themselves are not involved. In support of this theory, I first show that media attention is, similar to other positive feedback processes, power-law distributed across SMOs using two national (US) data sets. I then illustrate the process of positive feedback in media attention through a case study of the Black Panther Party's rise to prominence in media attention.
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U2 - 10.1093/sf/sov085
DO - 10.1093/sf/sov085
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84959888802
VL - 94
SP - 997
EP - 1020
JO - Social Forces
JF - Social Forces
SN - 0037-7732
IS - 3
M1 - sov085
ER -