Recipes for Attention: Policy Reforms, Crises, Organizational Characteristics, and the Newspaper Coverage of the LGBT Movement, 1969-2009

Why do some organizations in a movement seeking social change gain extensive national newspaper coverage? To address the question, we innovate in theoretical and empirical ways. First, we elaborate a theoretical argument that builds from the political mediation theory of movement consequences and in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociological forum (Randolph, N.J.) N.J.), 2016-12, Vol.31 (4), p.926-947
Main Authors: Elliott, Thomas Alan, Amenta, Edwin, Caren, Neal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
AIDS
Bisexuality
Crises
Fuzzy sets
Gay rights movements
Gender identity
Homosexuality
Journalism
Lesbianism
LGBT
LGBT movement
LGBTQ people
Mass media
media
News media
Organizational culture
organizations
Policy making
Political movements
political sociology
Protest movements
Public policy
Rights
Same sex marriage
Sexual orientation
Social change
Social movements
Social organization
Transgender persons
Transsexuality
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Summary:Why do some organizations in a movement seeking social change gain extensive national newspaper coverage? To address the question, we innovate in theoretical and empirical ways. First, we elaborate a theoretical argument that builds from the political mediation theory of movement consequences and incorporates the social organization of newspaper practices. This media and political mediation model integrates political and media contexts and organizations' characteristics and actions. With this model, we hypothesize two main routes to coverage: one that includes changes in public policy and involves policy-engaged, well-resourced, and inclusive organizations and a second that combines social crises and protest organizations. Second, we appraise these arguments with the first analysis of the national coverage of all organizations in a social movement over its career: 84 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights and AIDS-related organizations in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal from 1969 to 2010. These analyses go beyond previous research that provides either snapshots of many organizations at one point in time or overtime analyses of aggregated groups of organizations or individual organizations. The results of both historical and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analyses support our media and political mediation model.
ISSN:0884-8971
1573-7861
DOI:10.1111/socf.12290