How Canwest newspapers covered the BCTF in October 2005

This study examined CanWest newspaper coverage of a province-wide strike by the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) in October 2005, to test whether CanWest's editorial policy on the BCTF was consistent across different article types and markets. The researcher coded 743 articles from 28 CanWest newspapers for tone (negative, neutral or balanced, or positive) with respect to the BCTF, and used bar graphs and Pearson's r to compare the overall tone of article types (editorials, comments, and news) and markets (national, BC regional, and BC local). Results show similarities in tone across editorials and comments, but not news coverage, and similarities across national and local markets, but not local markets. Chi-square tests confirm these results are not due to chance, and an intercoder reliability test shows strong support for the researcher's codings. The study demonstrates simple techniques for researchers to illustrate and analyze their responses to large quantities of articles.