INFORMATION ON STRIKES AND UNION SETTLEMENTS - PATTERNS OF COVERAGE IN A NEWSPAPER OF RECORD

The authors investigate whether the New York Times' coverage of strike s and non-strike wage settlements in large bargaining units changed du ring the 1980s, a time when a ''transformation'' of industrial relatio ns is said to have taken place. Although the total number of New York Times articles on such events declined during the 1980s, the authors f ind that when appropriate control variables are included in the analys is, the apparent drop in coverage disappears. Important variables dete rmining the extent of news coverage were occurrence of a strike, strik e duration, number of workers involved, occurrence of federal interven tion, key industry status (that is, whether the affected industry was among those industries identified as exceptionally important for wage- setting), and proximity to New York City. They speculate that the redu ced number of articles may simply reflect a decreased incidence of str ikes.