ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the coverage given the Santa Barbara oil spill by a national sample of newspapers, determining the types of news subjects and news activities which become national events. An accident may thus provide access to some groups who ordinarily lack it; the randomness of its timing, location, and substantive features precludes appropriate news-making preparations on the part of the powerful. An accident may thus provide access to some groups who ordinarily lack it; the randomness of its timing, location, and substantive features precludes appropriate news-making preparations on the part of the powerful. The effect of geographic propinquity was not only to increase the total amount of coverage given the oil spill but also to provide somewhat more nearly equal coverage for oil company subject occurrences and conservationist subject occurrences. Congress, the oil companies, and state politicians, in that order, were the next most significant groups.
