Beyond Boundaries Talk

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#Lynching in the Press

Michael Weaver

Yale University

April 8, 2016
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*New York Times*. 5/7/1886

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*The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune* 1/15/1931

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##How did this take place?

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##Publicity and Technology

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saw massive expansion of

- transportation networks (railroads)
- communication networks (telegraph)
- news services (e.g., Associated Press)

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<iframe width='100%' height='95%' frameborder='0' src='http://mdweaver.github.io/station_map' allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>

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saw massive expansion of

- transportation networks (railroads)
- communication networks (telegraph)
- news services (e.g., Associated Press)

... which made the country smaller

- reduced travel times for people and information
- created a public eager for national news

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saw massive expansion of

- transportation networks (railroads)
- communication networks (telegraph)
- news services (e.g., Associated Press)

... which made the country smaller

- reduced travel times for people and information
- created a public eager for national news

###Publicity of lynchings has greater reach
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Breaking news of lynchings free from locality:

1. Loss of control over narrative

2. New audiences unsympathetic to lynchers

3. No ability to coerce critics

Lynching events could become national scandals
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##How do we test this?

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##The data

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###"Big data" meets history

Digitized historical newspaper archives

* More than 3,000 different papers

* Nation-wide coverage
 
* Big-city dailies, small town weeklies
  
* 8 million+ issues between 1880 and 1940

* Searchable content
  * 1.2 million articles explicitly mention lynching
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##Newspapers in sample over time

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###Railroad networks

* Yearly data from 1880 and 1900 (1911?)
  * Period of rapid growth (more than doubles)
  * Network centrality of counties
  * Travel time between counties
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##The findings

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  ## Results
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###Three implications

The probability that a lynching is reported in a newspaper:

1. **increases** as distance **decreases** between the lynching and the paper. ![check][]

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[check]:http://servepapers247.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Checkmark-Red.png

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Probability of lynching mention by distance

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  ## Results
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###Three implications

The probability that a lynching is reported in a newspaper:

1. **increases** as distance **decreases** between the lynching and the paper. ![check][]

2. **increases** as travel times **decrease** between the lynching and the paper. ![check][]

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[check]:http://servepapers247.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Checkmark-Red.png

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###Reductions in travel time almost ~~exactly~~ offset effects of distance

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  ## Results
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###Three implications

The probability that a lynching is reported in a newspaper:

1. **increases** as distance **decreases** between the lynching and the paper. ![check][]

2. **increases** as travel times **decrease** between the lynching and the paper. ![check][]

3. **increases** when the lynching occurred in an area more **central in communication and transportation networks**. ![check][]

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[check]:http://servepapers247.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Checkmark-Red.png

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Probability of lynching mention by betweenness centrality <br> (deciles)

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Probability of lynching mention by eigenvector centrality <br> (deciles)

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##What's next?

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* Is press coverage of lynching is more critical when the paper:
  1. is at a greater distance
  2. is in a place without a history or culture of lynching

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* Geocoding exact location of lynching events

* Transcribe and geocode railroad stations
	* Lists for each year between 1880 and 1910

* Transcribe and geocode telegraph offices 
	* Western Union books from 1870s through 1920s

#### Crowdsourcing transcription

* Real-time geocoding and mapping of new stations/offices
* Public access to the data

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#Thank you