Jobs, Environmental Controversies, Health, and Activism in the News

Abstract

Abstract Social movements and collective action have often been studied using newspapers for data. Concerns with newspaper data include selection bias, where a subset of accounts, events, or statements are reported, and description bias, which refers to the veracity of accounts and statements. Bias can be created by intentional or accidental misstatements of events and processes, by type of event selected by journalists, and by characteristics of the reporting entity. In this article, bias and scholarly strategies to address bias are discussed in the context of two West Virginian environmental conflicts; one focuses on mountaintop removal mining and one involves the production of the insecticide methyl isocyanate (MIC). Newspaper data is used to explore what activists say motivates their activism toward corporations causing environmental hazards.