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Media attention is a crucial political resource for protest groups. This study examines the description of protests in Belgian television news. Specifically, it analyzes the degree to which the coverage of protests is episodic (event- or exemplar-oriented) or thematic (issue-oriented) and looks into the factors that drive these coverage types. Protest event data from police archives (Brussels; 2003–2010) are combined with detailed measures of television news content (public and private broadcasting) to analyze media description (N = 564). The results show that the coverage of protest is primarily thematic. Episodic coverage is dominated by coverage about the details of the event; exemplars are rarely used. Protests that are disruptive, staged by organizations with low media standing, and covered by the commercial station are more event-oriented. Reports of large demonstrations and reports with follow-up items contain more episodic-exemplar coverage. Results are discussed in light of the conditionality of the protest paradigm.
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Ruud Wouters (2015) studied this question.
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