Disputes over the size of mass protests have become routine. Organizers want to highlight widespread commitment to their cause and distrust conservative estimates by the media and police. More accurate counts probably will not end these disagreements, but will provide better evidence amidst the partisan squabbling.
References
1.
BarberLucy G.Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition.Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 2003. Barber describes in detail the organization and consequences of six historic marches on the nation's capital city.
2.
HerbstSusan. Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling has Shaped American Politics.Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Herbst shows how estimates of crowd size during political campaigns became less important with the advent of public opinion polling.
3.
JacobsHerbert. “To Count a Crowd.”Columbia Journalism Review6 (1967): 37–40. Jacobs details the principles of what subsequently evolved as the “gold standard” for estimating crowd size.
4.
MannLeon. “Counting a Crowd: The Effect of Editorial Policies on Estimates.”Journalism Quarterly51 (1974): 278–285. Newspapers with pro-war editorial policies published lower estimates of anti-war protests than papers that editorialized against the war.
5.
McCarthyJohn D.McPhailClarkSmithJackie. “Images of Protest: Dimensions of Selection Bias in Media Coverage of Washington Demonstrations, 1982 and 1991.”American Sociological Review61 (1996): 478–499. Our analysis of police records revealed that the larger the mass protest, the more likely it was to be covered by newspapers and television.
6.
McPhailClark. The Myth of the Madding Crowd.Hawthorne, NY: Aldine De Gruyter, 1991. Based on extensive field observations, this study critiques popular explanations for crowd phenomena.
7.
TillyCharles. Popular Contention in Great Britain, 1758–1834.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. This definitive account of the emergence of modern mass protests predicts which social movements will command public attention.
8.
United States Park Police.Guideline Manual: Crowd Estimates.Washington, DC: U.S. Park Police, 1991. This manual contains the operational rules used for counting crowds in Washington—the “gold standard.”.
