Andrew Shaver - Biased Media Reporting and our Understanding of Global Conflict
News reports of political violence from around the world are being compiled into large conflict event datasets that are used by governments, international organizations, think tanks, and academics in their efforts to understand conflict around the globe. While these datasets present various opportunities to examine the micro-dynamics of conflict, there are many reasons to suspect that the data may skewed in ways that limit their value or, worse, lead their users to erroneous conclusions. Specifically, the news media is both constrained in their ability to report on violent events and may actively choose not to report others. In this project, we identify specific sources of likely media reporting bias and analyze the conflict event datasets for evidence of systematic error that arises as a result.
Andrew Shaver is an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Merced. Prior to that, he completed postdoctoral research fellowships at Stanford University's Political Science Department and, separately, at Dartmouth College, where he was also a lecturer. Professor Shaver earned his PhD in Public Affairs (security studies) from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and completed his final year of the doctoral program as a predoctoral fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is also the founding director of the Political Violence Lab. His research focuses broadly on contemporary sub-state conflict. Professor Shaver previously served in different foreign affairs/national security positions within the U.S. Government, including spending nearly one and a half years in Iraq during the U.S.-led war with the Pentagon.