News Sources and Power Elites in News Coverage of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Analysis of sources named in six months' coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill by the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Anchorage Daily News suggests that the majority of sources who were named by more than one news organization represented powerful institutional elites. Sources representing three of those elites perceived the story in substantially different ways, and indicated substantially different levels of satisfaction with how it was reported. However, the degree to which various groups of sources were satisfied with how the spill was reported was not a function of their degree of media access.