Packaging Protest: Media Coverage of Indigenous People's Collective Action

• Published in: The Canadian review of sociology Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 327 - 357
• Main Authors: WILKES, RIMA, CORRIGALL-BROWN, CATHERINE, MYERS, DANIEL J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.11.2010; Wiley; Canadian Sociological Association
• Subjects: Activism; American Indians; Amerindians; Analysis; Canada; Canadian native peoples; Collective Action; Indigenous Populations; Job placement; Journalism; Media; Media coverage; News Coverage; Placement; Political sociology; Protest movements; Social movements. Revolutions; Social representations; Sociology; Sociology of communication and mass media. Sociolinguistics; Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture; Canada; Collective Action; Native; Photography; Cutting; Media coverage
• ISSN: 1755-6171; 1755-618X
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-618X.2010.01243.x

Indigenous peoples in Canada have engaged in hundreds of collective action events. Drawing on the news as organization and collective action literatures, we conduct a systematic examination of coverage across events, and we assess the factors associated with the number of articles, front page placement, and the inclusion of photographs. We find that increasing the size and the length of an event does not improve coverage. The latter is determined exclusively by the form of the event, and it is disruptive tactics alone that increase front page coverage. The inclusion of pictures, however, is largely determined by media news routines rather than by activists tactics.