NEWS FROM THE NONINSTITUTIONAL WORLD - US AND CANADIAN TELEVISION-NEWS COVERAGE OF SOCIAL PROTEST

Although news coverage of protest is a necessary component to a protes t movement's survival or growth, the way protest is covered can legiti mate or delegitimate a protest movement. This article's perspective ar gues that television news coverage of protest is shaped by the degree of dissent from elite or institutional parameters. The data presented here look at protest on U.S. and Canadian national news programs. The data support the idea that the tone of news coverage depends on the pr otest's relationship to institutional interests. For domestic issues, the degree of debate among elites shapes the extent and tone of news c overage. The tone of coverage of protests in other countries tends to correspond with the government's foreign policy toward both the foreig n government and protest movements. Canadian news coverage is more lik ely to give greater credence to protest and to the issues that protest ers raise.