The study addresses three research questions. First, when are social movement organizations (SMOs) best able to garner media attention and get their preferred messages covered? Second, what organizational, strategic, and institutional factors influence SMOs' success in using the media over time? Third, how successful are particular SMOs at using mass media to reach a broader audience? This research focuses on three sets of factors (independent variables): characteristics of social movement organizations; characteristics of media organizations; and the social and political environment in which social movement action is embedded. The research design triangulates the data through the use of archival data analysis, the examination of historical accounts, and interviews. Archival data and historical accounts will be used to examine how the SMOs are structured, the resources (human and financial) each dedicates to garnering media attention, and the strategies each uses to get its preferred messages in media outlets. The researcher also will conduct interviews with past and current activists to determine whether and how activists incorporate the lessons they learn from interacting with journalists into their existing media strategy, as well as how activists adjust their media strategies and messages in relation to oppositional and allied SMOs. Because mass media consists of different types of outlets that have different audiences and niches, the researcher will examine how the resources, journalistic norms and routines, and the story production process in a range of media organizations affect coverage. In order to analyze these three factors, the researcher will conduct interviews with journalists/reporters and editors/producers who consistently cover the abortion issue. The dependent variable in the study is media success. In an effort to expand the current literature by offering a more nuanced approach to measuring media success, the researcher will employ a sampling strategy that is cognizant of temporal and cross-sectional variation. First, she will sample critical moments in the abortion debate from 1980 to 2000; these critical moments represent times when it is more likely that SMOs will get media coverage. Second, she will sample a cross section of media outlets, including the New York Times, Time, Nation, National Review, Ms., Sojourners, and the national broadcasts from ABC, CBS, and NBC. Different media outlets have different target audiences and as such an SMO may get coverage in one outlet but not another. Moreover, different outlets command different levels of audience attention. This research contributes to broader knowledge in at least three ways. First, because the research design employs a variety of methods and examines multiple levels of analysis, the researcher can offer a detailed analysis of the interactions among SMOs, media organizations, and the larger social and political environment. This allows an examination of how these interactions affect media coverage. Second, she will consider how SMOs adapt their media strategies and preferred messages in relation to opponents and allied SMOs. Finally, she will examine the relationships among SMOs, mass media outlets, and the larger social and political environment over time. Analyzing these relationships over time allows the researcher to compare the SMOs and their strategies in a larger social and political context to determine whether and how an SMO incorporates the lessons it learns from its interactions with journalists and reporters into its strategies and structures, and to evaluate how effective media strategies and messages are in a dynamic environment.
