The study of violence and social unrest in Africa: A comparative analysis of three conflict event datasets

Demarest, Leila; Langer, Arnim

doi:10.1093/afraf/ady003

Cited by 17 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…In addition, and heeding the call by Demarest and Langer for scholars to carefully reflect on biases in source material, we also assessed region-specific outlets, including Africa Research Bulletin, Africa Confidential, and country-or event-specific secondary sources, such as academic books and journal articles (Demarest and Langer, 2018). The results of this initial round of coding left the authors with the ''candidate case'' batch which the authors then vetted to confirm an event as mutiny or remove it from the dataset.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mutiny in Africa, 1950–2018

Schiel

Powell

Faulkner

2020

Conflict Management and Peace Science

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The majority of literature on civil–military relations has focused on coups d’état. Yet, studying lesser forms of military insubordination can offer valuable insight into the true condition of states’ civil–military relations. This paper introduces a data collection effort on mutinies across Africa from 1950 to 2018, revealing several interesting trends. First, most African countries have experienced mutinies, with these events increasing in frequency in the post-Cold War period. Second, while mutinies rarely escalate into coups, they are associated with an increased likelihood of coups in the future. This dataset provides a useful tool to explore the complexity of states’ civil–military relations.

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Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mutiny in Africa, 1950–2018

Schiel

Powell

Faulkner

2020

Conflict Management and Peace Science

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“…Bueno de Mesquita et al (2015) developed a data set on political violence in Pakistan based on national newspapers and record a higher number of incidents than data sets relying on Factiva. Demarest and Langer (2018) compared data sets based on international versus national news sources on conflict events in Nigeria. They find that international sources underrepresent conflict events, in particular protest events.…”

Section: The Tee Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…d Weidmann (2016). e Demarest and Langer (2018), Herkenrath and Knoll (2011), Bueno de Mesquita et al (2015). f Barron and Sharpe (2008).…”

Section: Event Data: a Way Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Events Enter (or Not) Data Sets: The Pitfalls and Guidelines of Using Newspapers in the Study of Conflict

Demarest

Langer

2019

Sociological Methods & Research

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While conflict event data sets are increasingly used in contemporary conflict research, important concerns persist regarding the quality of the collected data. Such concerns are not necessarily new. Yet, because the methodological debate and evidence on potential errors remains scattered across different subdisciplines of social sciences, there is little consensus concerning proper reporting practices in codebooks, how best to deal with the different types of errors, and which types of errors should be prioritised. In this article, we introduce a new analytical framework—that is, the Total Event Error (TEE) framework—which aims to elucidate the methodological challenges and errors that may affect whether and how events are entered into conflict event data sets, drawing on different fields of study. Potential errors are diverse and may range from errors arising from the rationale of the media source (e.g., selection of certain types of events into the news) to errors occurring during the data collection process or the analysis phase. Based on the TEE framework, we propose a set of strategies to mitigate errors associated with the construction and use of conflict event data sets. We also identify a number of important avenues for future research concerning the methodology of creating conflict event data sets.

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“…While these new projects offer interesting cross-national comparisons, none of them makes use of local news sources. These can nonetheless provide more fine-grained information on violent events (e.g., Demarest & Langer 2018), while the risk of political biases in these types of sources appears limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reporting on electoral violence in Nigerian news media: “Saying it as it is”?

Demarest¹,

Langer²

2019

Afr. stud. rev.

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Abstract:While Nigeria has a vibrant press media landscape, freedom of the press is only rated as “partly free” by Freedom House, mostly due to political influences on reporting. Yet the extent to which these influences affect the quality of reporting remains insufficiently investigated. We address this gap by analyzing how three newspapers with different political affiliations report on conflict in the run-up to the 2015 elections. Our analyses indicate that biases in reporting are generally limited, and that while political pressures are real, they are most evident in editorial choices.

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The study of violence and social unrest in Africa: A comparative analysis of three conflict event datasets

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Mutiny in Africa, 1950–2018

Mutiny in Africa, 1950–2018

How Events Enter (or Not) Data Sets: The Pitfalls and Guidelines of Using Newspapers in the Study of Conflict

Reporting on electoral violence in Nigerian news media: “Saying it as it is”?

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