If you want your protest against the inhumane treatment of Tibetan yaks to make newspaper headlines and network newscasts, be prepared to assemble many thousands of sympathizers.
According to a study looking at media coverage of protests, newspapers and network news shows aren't likely to cover protests, rallies or other demonstrations involving neglected causes unless the event draws a huge crowd.
Sociologist Jackie Smith, a visiting fellow of Notre Dame's Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, along with John D. McCarthy of Catholic University and Clark McPhail of the University of Illinois, examined the number and variety of political protests held in Washington, D.C., during 1982 and 1991. Then they looked at the media coverage the events received. Their goal was to identify the biases at work in news organizations when it comes to deciding which protests deserve air time and ink and which don't.
Each year more than a thousand protests are staged in Washington, the vast majority of which are ignored by the major news organizations. The ones that aren't ignored, Smith and her colleagues found, are likely to involve 10,000 people or more. In other words, size is the No. 1 determinant of media attention.
The next most important factor is the event's timing in relation to what the researchers call the "media attention cycle." This refers to the reality that at any given time some subjects are hotter news than others. The scholars found that if the subject of a protest is already drawing significant media attention the event is more likely to receive coverage, too.
A good illustration of this, they say, occurred during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. During that year, even relatively small Gulf War demonstrations -- pro or con -- received coverage because the fighting itself was continually front-page news.
The researchers worry about the growing tendency of national news organizations to cover only large protests or those pegged to issues already drawing attention. Historically, protests have served as a nonviolent means of drawing attention to problems some feel aren't being adequately addressed. When the subject of a protest has relevance beyond its locality, national news organizations can serve as important conduits. Or not.
As political scientist Michael Lipsky noted in 1968, a time of abundant protests in the United States, "Like the tree falling unheard in the forest, there is no protest unless protest is perceived and projected."
The researchers summarized their findings in the article "Images of Protest: Dimensions of Selection Bias in Media Coverage of Washington Demonstrations, 1982 and 1991," published in the June 1996 issue of the American Sociological Review.