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Abstract

This study analyzes how mainstream and Black newspapers covered reparations after the Black Lives Matter protests and two other catalysts in reparations discourse: Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The case for reparations” and the 2019 commission to reexamine H.R. 40. Using ARIMAX models of articles discussing reparations over two decades, this analysis tests how coverage changed and uses Google Trends data to test how the public’s agenda responded. Mainstream newspapers were more receptive to legislative action, whereas the Black press gave more attention to reparations after the 2020 protests. Search behavior was responsive to mainstream coverage of reparations.

Keywords

reparations time series analysis agenda uptake political communication

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Picking Up the Call for Reparations: News Coverage Following Three Catalysts

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