French Collective Action Salience:

Why Does the World Pay

Attention?
An Analysis of Protest Event Location and International Media Coverage

Ciera DuBan
 Importance
Assumptions
• Frequency
• (Ambler, 1994; Wilson, 1994; Baumgartner, 1994;
Ancelovici, 2011)
• Policy Outcomes
• (Ambler, 1994)
The Puzzle
• Why is French protest salient?
 Resource Rational
Thought
Mobilization
Within
Theory instituions
Schools of
thought Deviant
Behavior
Breakdown Theory
No Societal
Control
 Media Reporting
• Newsworthy (Oliver and Maney,
2000)
• Centralization (Baumgartner, 1994)
Variables
Social Structures
• Centralization (Baumgartner, 1994)
• Historical Precedence (Tilly, 1979;
Wilson, 1994; William,1990)
Theoretical Framework
H1: There is a positive relationship between a collective action event’s proximity to Paris and
international news coverage by Associated Press

H0: There is no relationship between a collective action event’s proximity to Paris and
international news coverage by Associated Press.

Dependent Variable: AP news coverage​

Independent Variable: Collective action Proximity to Paris
 Existence/frequency of written news sources
from AP archives about individual collective
action events
AP News
Coverage Demonstrates issue salience
If an event receives more AP coverage, it is more
salient (Epstein & Segal, 2000).
 Event Proximity to Paris

1. Collective Action Event 2. Proximity to Paris

To fit in the RM theory of collective action, the measured in miles
event must be rational and organized
(Buechler, 1993; Useem 1998)

10 terms from Codebook for European Protest

and Coercion Data (Francisco, 2000)
• Boycott, civil disobedience,
demonstration, general strike, march,
mobilization, obstruction, occupation,
rally, strike
 Media and
Epstein and Segal
issue
(2000) saliency

Validity and
Replicability
Fransico's European Protest
and Coercion Data
Testing

• Interval Variables
• Unit of Analysis: Collective Action Event
• Cross sectional analysis
• Bivariate linear regression
• Pearson's R
 News source ideologies

Future
Research
News source location
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and Society, 12(2/3), 84-96. Retrieved from
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