ABSTRACT
While the study of media has often been omitted from textbooks on social movements, some texts do now include material relating to the role of media in social protest, which has become necessary, especially given the advent of the Internet, new media, and social networking sites. In her brief commentary on the subject, Susan Staggenborg (2011: 45-47) shows how the issue of newsworthiness tends to preclude the grievances of social movements being aired in the mass media. The idea here is that because they are driven by a commercial imperative to produce stories that sell – which is heightened in the increasingly competitive 24/7 mediasphere marketplace – mainstream news media tend not to be interested in covering social movement issues of long-term policy relevance, such as tackling poverty or addressing environmental damage.
