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1 1 (August 2018)

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Key  Points

  *  This report analyzes every article on the 2018 teacher strikes published by five national
     newspapers.
  *  The framing of teacher walkout coverage was remarkably impartial, with 56 of 59 article
     headlines and leads displaying no lean toward one side over another.
  *  However, articles quoted people in a way that was more one-sided. Over 80 percent of
     quotes from teachers, parents, and students supported the strikes.
  *  The coverage often failed to present all the relevant perspectives, such as the thoughts
     of families affected by the strikes. Of the 254 quotes published, only 5 percent came from
     an affected parent or student.
  *  The coverage also neglected to give readers a clear understanding of teacher compensa-
     tion. Just 15 percent of articles quantified teacher health care benefits, 3 percent quanti-
     fied pensions, and 2 percent compared teacher salaries to the relevant state's median
     household income.


During spring 2018, tens of thousands of teachers
in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona,
Colorado, and North Carolina walked out of their
schools. These teachers were angry about pay, school
funding, proposed benefit changes, and more. The
walkouts attracted extensive media attention across
the land; that coverage has helped shape public un-
derstanding of the strikes and any political impact.
With that in mind, this report examines how five
national newspapers (the New York Times, Wall Street
Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA
Today) covered the strikes.
   Specifically, we examined how stories about the
strikes were framed, who was quoted in those stories,
and what information about teacher compensation
was provided to readers. Using the search engine


LexisNexis (a database that collects news articles
from national and international news outlets), we
identified all the stories these newspapers published
on the walkouts between February i5 (just before
the first walkout in West Virginia) and June 1 (after
the last major walkout ended in May).
   In all, we examined 59 news stories. The New
York Times published 17 articles on the walkouts;
the Wall Street Journal, 16; the Washington Post, 13;
the Los Angeles Times, io; and USA Today, 3. Twenty-
six of the articles focused specifically on the West
Virginia walkout, ii on Oklahoma, 5 on Arizona, and
the rest on less-prominent walkouts or on multiple
states.


AMERICAN   ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

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