To the Internet, From the Internet: Comparative media coverage of transnational protests

We compare activist-based internet data with four other media sources—Lexis NexisAcademic Universe, The Seattle Times, Global Newsbank, and The New York Times—ontheir coverage of the local, national, and international protests that accompanied the WorldTrade Organization’s (WTO) Third Ministerial Conference in Seattle, Washington in late1999. Using the Media Sensitivity-Protest Intensity Model of event reporting, we find thatactivist-based web sites report a greater number of transnational protest events at the local,national, and international level. We also find that activist-based websites are less positivelyinfluenced by the intensity properties of protest events. In the age of globalization, researchon transnational movements should therefore combine conventional media sources andactivist-based web sources.