Cascades of Coverage: Dynamics of Media Attention to Social Movement Organizations.
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,...
| Publicado en: | Social Forces Vol. 94; no. 3; pp. 997 - 1021 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Mar2016
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=112844796&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 112844796 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00377732 SFR jtl: Social Forces issn: 00377732 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2016 vid: 94 iid: 3 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 112844796 10.1093/sf/sov085 ppf: 997 ppct: 24 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 955KB tig: atl: Cascades of Coverage: Dynamics of Media Attention to Social Movement Organizations. aug: au: Seguin, Charles affil: University of North Carolina su: United States Black Panther Party Social movements Mass media Activists Psychological feedback Demonstrations in the press American newspapers sug: subj: Social movements Mass media Activists Psychological feedback United States Black Panther Party Demonstrations in the press American newspapers 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. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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