ABSTRACT
The last chapter examined the dynamics and variables underpinning the relations between the media and their sources, including non-official sources. This chapter builds on that by honing the focus down to one particular category of non-official source – protest orientated social movements. The focus on protest is particularly important here, because while movements themselves may or may not regard street demonstrations as their most important activity, protests are usually their most newsworthy undertaking. Fittingly then, we begin with a consideration of the reasons why protests might attract the media’s attention. We shall then proceed to work our way through a number of related questions:
How have the media reported on demonstrations in the recent past? What do social movements and other campaigning organisations,
particularly those on the Left, make of the ways in which they are portrayed in the news media?
