Cataloguing Protest: Newspapers, Nexis or Twitter?

Lesley Wood, York University
Dyllan Goldstein, York University

What is the best source for building protest event catalogues? Newspaper sources remain dominant, but social media data and multimedia compilations are tempting. This paper compares three differently sourced catalogues of protest events in Toronto from 15 July – 15 September 2020. The Black Lives Matter and anti-eviction cycles of protest are clearly visible in all three sources, but otherwise reveal very different movements, and cover them differently. While Toronto Star coverage highlights protest that is state centred, and tied to a small number of ongoing news stories, catalogues sourced from Nexis Uni and Twitter show a field of protest that is more diverse, irrational, fragmented and international. These observations help to unpack the characteristics of differently sourced event catalogues, and suggest implications of using different sources to understand patterns in protest.

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 Presented in Session 111. Contentious Politics