The Use of Digitized Newspaper Archives for World-Historical Research on Social Conflicts: The State-Seeking Nationalist Movements Database
Methodological Advances in Research on Social Movements, Conflict, and Change
ISBN: 978-1-80117-887-7, eISBN: 978-1-80117-886-0
Publication date: 12 July 2023
Abstract
This paper discusses data-collection strategies that use digitized historical newspaper archives to study social conflicts and social movements from a global and historical perspective focusing on nationalist movements. I present an analysis of State-Seeking Nationalist Movements (SSNMs) dataset I, which includes news articles reporting on state-seeking activities throughout the world from 1804 to 2013 using the New York Times and the Guardian/Observer. In discussing this new source of data and its relative value, I explain the various benefits and challenges involved with using digitized historical newspaper archives for world-historical analysis of social movements. I also introduce strategies that can be used to detect and minimize some potential sources of bias. I demonstrate the utility of the strategies introduced in this paper by assessing the reliability of the SSNM dataset I and by comparing it to alternative datasets. The analysis presented in the paper also compares the labor-intensive manual data-coding strategies to automated approaches. In doing so, it explains why labor-intensive manual coding strategies will continue to be an invaluable tool for world-historical sociologists in a world of big data.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
This research is made possible through Faculty First Awards at University of North Carolina, Greensboro. I am indebted to the collective work and discussions within Global Social Protest Research Working Group at the Arrighi Center for Global Studies (Johns Hopkins University), especially to Beverly Silver, Sefika Kumral, Corey Payne, Minhyoung Kang, Rishi Awatramani, Smriti Upadhyay, Juan Grigera, and several other faculty members, graduate and undergraduate members of the research working group. I would also like to thank Thomas Maher, Eric Schoon, and anonymous reviewers of the RSMCC for their very constructive and helpful comments on the manuscript. The empirical analysis using the SSNM database introduced in this paper as an example can be found in Karatasli (2020), and versions of the database as well as the online appendix that complements this article can be accessed at skaratasli.com/ssnm-database.
Citation
Karatasli, S.S. (2023), "The Use of Digitized Newspaper Archives for World-Historical Research on Social Conflicts: The State-Seeking Nationalist Movements Database", Maher, T.V. and Schoon, E.W. (Ed.) Methodological Advances in Research on Social Movements, Conflict, and Change (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 47), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 37-68. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-786X20230000047003
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023 Sahan Savas Karatasli. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited