ABSTRACT
Sourcing is a bedrock routine of American journalism, but little is known about how it may have evolved over time. This exploratory study combines social scientific and historical methods to examine sourcing in New York Times coverage of two incidents separated by decades: the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, and the Russian invasion of Chechnya in 1994. We find that while official sources have long been a mainstay of American reporting abroad, correspondents in the more recent case also made greater use of local eyewitnesses and media sources. Archival research and interviews reveal the contextual factors shaping these changes.
