The Wisconsin Press and Woman Suffrage,1911–1919: An Analysis of Factors Affecting Coverage by Ten Diverse Newspapers

Abstract

This study combines quantitative and qualitative methods in its analysis of ten Wisconsin newspapers during six week-long periods in which a significant woman suffrage event took place. It attempted to identify those factors that might have influenced individual newspapers' coverage of the suffrage movement, including the personal positions of their publishers and editors, their political affiliations, the demographic characteristics of their readership area, circulation size, place of publication, and sources of the stories they published on suffrage. The study found that these examples of the “mainstream press,” far from representing a united ideological voice, represented a diversity of voices influenced, in part, by these factors.