Media, Bureaucracy, and the Success of Social Protest: Newspaper Coverage of Environmental Movement Groups

Abstract

In this study, I investigated a point of disagreement in the literature: Does organizational bureaucracy help or hinder the success of social protest, measured here as prestige newspaper coverage given to environmental groups. Contrary to previous research, these data found a curvilinear relationship between bureaucracy level and media success: Medium bureaucracy groups were most successful at receiving coverage and being featured prominently within it. Low bureaucracy groups were virtually ignored by these newspapers. Contrary to previous studies, this study found no relationship between type of tactic and bureaucracy level -- all groups were associated with high levels of "institutional" protest actions.