Information on strikes and union settlements: Patterns of coverage in a "newspaper of record"

Abstract

The authors investigate whether the New York Times' coverage of strikes and non-strike wage settlements in large bargaining units changed during the 1980s, a time when a "transformation" of industrial relations is said to have taken place. Although the total number of New York Times articles on such events declined during the 1980s, the authors find that when appropriate control variables are included in the analysis, the apparent drop in coverage disappears. Important variables determining the extent of news coverage were occurrence of a strike, strike duration, number of workers involved, occurrence of federal intervention, key industry status (that is, whether the affected industry was among those industries identified as exceptionally important for wage-setting), and proximity to New York City. They speculate that the reduced number of articles may simply reflect a decreased incidence of strikes.