Center for Social Innovation

The media introduce social movements to the masses, but how do social movements make it into the media? Among environmental groups, “there’s this small number of organizations that really capture the lion’s share of attention,” says Kenneth Andrews, associate professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And they aren’t the flashy, controversial ones you might expect.

Although most researchers study issues and organizations that already have made a big splash, Andrews and his coauthor sampled all the environmental organizations in North Carolina and then read all the coverage that those 187 groups received in 11 major daily newspapers over a two-year period. “Our sample includes everything from grassroots, completely volunteer-run groups, to groups with a dozen or more staff who are working full time for the organization,” Andrews says. By far the most attention went to the more professional and formalized organizations, which used routine advocacy tactics and worked on issues with which reporters ... Read more