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News Media Reporting Patterns and our Biased Understanding of Global Unrest

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Shaver

    (University of California, Merced)

Abstract

News reports of political violence are systematically compiled into large global conflict-event datasets used by academics, governments, and international organizations. These datasets present opportunities to examine the micro-dynamics of conflict but are often systematically skewed. We compare various news-report based datasets to high quality administrative records from Afghanistan, Iraq, the Philippines, South Africa, and Syria to identify sources of systematic missingness in the former. We identify under-reporting related to violence intensity, weaponry, target, perpetrator, and non-deadly violence. In a large replication exercise, we show that media-based data fail to uncover the results reported in leading economics/political science journal articles.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Shaver, 2022. "News Media Reporting Patterns and our Biased Understanding of Global Unrest," Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) Working Papers 32, Empirical Studies of Conflict Project.
    • Handle: RePEc:pri:esocpu:32
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    File URL: https://esoc.princeton.edu/WP32
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Afghanistan; Iraq; Philippines; South Africa; Syria;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • F51 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Conflicts; Negotiations; Sanctions

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