The Social Science Journal 44 (2007) 231–251 How does newspaper coverage of collective action vary? Protest by Indigenous people in Canada Rima Wilkes * , Danielle Ricard Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada Abstract Newspapers are a widely used source of data about collective action and social movements. In this study, we build upon a growing body of literature that critically assesses the coverage that newspapers provide of protest. We consider coverage in relation to a set of protest events that have yet to be considered in the literature (protest by Indigenous people in Canada); we consider multiple years (1985 and 1995); and finally, we measure coverage differently than has been done in previous studies (multiple articles and type of coverage as opposed to yes/no assessments). Using data on forty-three protest events, covered in seven Canadian newspapers, we find that while some events are covered by a similar number of newspapers, the volume of articles and type of coverage can be very different. We also find that for most newspapers, coverage rates improved over time. Scholars must be careful to assess whether increases in protest are real or merely reflect increases in coverage. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Newspapers are a key data source used in quantitative studies of collective action such as riots, protests, social movements, ethnic conflict, coups, and rebellions (Kerbo & Shaffer, 1986; Taylor & Jodice, 1983; Van Dyke, 2003; Wilkes, 2004a, 2004b). The broad scope and consistency of their coverage, as well as their wide availability, makes newspapers especially attractive as a source of data (Oliver, Cadena-Roa, & Strawn, 2004; Olzak, 1989). Nevertheless, the practicalities involved in using newspapers have also been questioned by several recent studies in which scholars have carefully assessed the reliability of media coverage of protest events (Hocke, 1998; Oliver & Myers, 1999; Swank, 2000; Ortiz, Myers, Eugene Walls, & Diaz, 2005). In this study, we build upon this existing literature in several ways. We consider coverage in relation to a set of protest events that have yet to be considered in the literature (protest by Indigenous people in Canada); we consider multiple years (1985 and 1995); and * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 604 822 6855. E-mail address: wilkesr@interchange.ubc.ca (R. Wilkes). 0362-3319/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.soscij.2007.03.017