Coverage of Occupy Wall Street Movement Surpasses that of Tea Party at its Height

Occupy Wall Street, at certain times, has garnered a larger percent of the media newshole than the Tea Party at its peak newshole coverage of the movement.  Reaching 13 % for the week of November 14-20, 2011 and 10 % for the week of October 10-16^th, 2011, it surpasses the high water mark of the Tea Party at 7 % during the week of April 13-19th, 2009.  But what accounts for increased news coverage in each movement?

Reasons for Increased News Coverage for Occupy Movement

The Occupy Movement has seen sharp increases in newshole occupation and then decline, where increases coincide with coverage of police interaction, arrest, or encampment removal.  The Pew Research Center for Excellence in Journalism stated in a recent article that “The Occupy Wall Street protests, which had been slowly fading from the media’s radar screen, generated plenty of headlines last week when several cities around the country, including New York, took steps to control the encampments.”  It is accompanied by a graphic of percent of newshole garnered by the Occupy Movement over time.

  In another post by Pew, Tricia Sartor describes the occupation of the newshole at 2 % for the week of September 26^th- October 2^nd, 2011 after video of the two women being pepper sprayed by police emerged, followed by an increase to 7% for the following week when “…the protests began to spread and 700 people were arrested while attempting to march across the Brooklyn Bridge.”  She then explains the 10% number reached for the week of October 10^th-16^th, when “…the protests became more politicized in the U.S. while expanding to a reported 900 cities around the globe.”    

 This idea of increased coverage surrounding police involvement is echoed in a New York Times article where they cite Alicia Shepard, ex-ombudsman of NPR, as saying “…most news coverage of Occupy hasn’t been about the issues, it’s been about who’s up and who’s down.”  A similar claim has been made by Nate Silver in his New York Times 538 blog, where he used the newslibrary.com database, “a compendium of about 4,000 news outlets in the United States — mostly 'traditional' sources like newspapers and television stations”, to analyze coverage of the Occupy Movement with respect to incidents with police, and his results are shown in the graphic below, where increases in coverage occur after incidents with police.

He also has a graphic comparing news hits for both movements at similar times in their movements history, where the Tea Party has the early edge.  However, the Occupy Movement is only returning hits up to about October 8th in this graphic, where they hadn't yet reached 10 % of the newshole.

Interview with Dr. Hadden Concerning Reasons for Occupy Coverage

In an interview with Dr. Jennifer Hadden of the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, an expert in social movements, I addressed a statement made in the Pew post where they cite a Washington Post article that states, “The movement began as a protest of major economic and political issues, but lately the most divisive issue has become the protests themselves. The Occupy Wall Street encampments that formed across the country to spotlight crimes committed on Wall Street have become rife with problems of their own.”  I then asked why she believes coverage of the movement has become the protests and not what the group is actually about:

Reasons for Increased Coverage of the Tea Party

While the Occupy Movement has seen 13 % of the newshole occupied, the Tea Party movement has peaked at 7 % for the week of April 13^th-19^th, 2009, followed by 6 % the next year, during the week of April 12^th-18^th, 2010.  Reasons for the 7 % newshole coverage surround a large national protest regarding tax day.  The story is the same for the following year at 6 %.

Why has Occupy Garnered More Newshole Coverage?

In the Pew Research Center for Excellence in Journalism post by Tricia Sartor, she speaks to why there may be coverage differences between the two movements.  She believes it is important to keep in mind that the Occupy Movement is an ongoing protest, whereas the Tea Party staged large, one day, national protests.  She also makes a point that “In addition, the Tea Party and its goals have become part of the nation's political narrative and now generate ongoing coverage, not simply when there are major events or protests.”

Sustainability vs. Effectiveness of Social Movements

I also asked Dr. Hadden in my interview about the Occupy and Tea Party Movements if she thinks a social movement, like Occupy Wall Street, can sustain itself with just coverage of “police wrongdoings”:

listen to ‘Sustainability of Occupy vs. Effectiveness’ on Audioboo

And getting their message across has been one criticism of the Occupy Movement.  Not only are they facing coverage of the protest themselves, but their message that is conveyed through the media has seen what one usnews.com article describes as suffering from “...a seeming lack of cohesion.”  The article states that “…though [Occupy’s] central message is about the actions of the richest Americans at the expense of 'the 99 percent,' Occupy has taken on a number of other causes.”  The article described some of those causes as “…not linked to current prominent political topics, like hunger and homelessness.” The Tea Party is then described as the winner as far as message is concerned, which is supported by the 2010 Midterm Election where many new successful Republican candidates ran on Tea Party values described by the usnews.com article as “…antipathy toward big government, large federal deficits and debt, and taxation.” 

In my interview with Dr. Hadden, I posed this question to her: “In two articles I found comparing the coverage of the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements, a distinction has been made between the two, saying the Occupy Movement lacks a “central philosophy” or is suffering “mission creep”, whereas the Tea party eventually made clearly defined goals and have gained a lot of political clout.  However, the Occupy movement is still relatively young, and can still narrow its platform.  Do you believe that social movements need a clear message to continue not only receiving support from activists, but also to garner positive media coverage?”  She responded," The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are not really the same kind of movement", where she bases her belief on the structure of each movement (top down vs. grass roots).  Because, in her opinion, Occupy is a more " genuinely grassroots" and "diverse movement", she "...doesn't see that Occupy is ever going to coalesce on one particular policy proposal," but however,"...it may coalesce in different places on different things." She then makes the point that she doesn't believe "...we are going to see Occupy Wall Street become the kind of movement that the Tea Party is....."

Conclusion:  What to Watch for

If the Occupy movement may never be able to “coalesce” around one main goal, will they become a political force like the Tea Party movement?  Will they see continued news coverage of just protests or something more beneficial to the effectiveness of the movement, and not just the sustainability of the movement?  It will be interesting to see coverage of the Occupy Movement in the following months to see if there is a change in how much they are being covered and what type of coverage they are receiving.