What constitutes an event?
Before beginning to code events, coders should know how to identify what is classified as an event. To clarify, consider whether the sentence addresses the question: Who did what to whom, when and where?
Not all elements ("who"=source, "to whom"=target and/or "where"= location of action, depending upon event category and context), however, may exist simultaneously within the first sentence. Even in the absence of one or more of these elements, however, the sentence may still be codable.
What part of the report may be coded?
Code only the information that appears in the first sentence. Do not search later sentences in the report to locate missing elements. In other words, the coder may read to the end of the first sentence and must stop, as though the report had ended there.
For example, the first (lead) sentence, "Three people were kidnapped on Thursday," is an event, even though the source, or initiating actor, is unidentified. Should the next sentence read, "Paramilitary groups have claimed responsibility," the coder may not make the inference that the source actor is the paramilitary group as they have claimed.
What constitutes a null event?
Null, or non-events, typically fall into the following story-type categories: Press digest, Reuters Historical Calendar, Interview, Diary, Stocks, News Summary, and Guest Column. The majority of these types of stories are filtered out a priori, although, from time to time, they appear within a data source file. Do not code these events.
Further, should the grammatical structure of the sentence be compromised because of a data formatting irregularity, do not code the sentence (e.g., the lead sentence was truncated and only a fragment of the original sentence remains, etc.). Do not code these events.
Coding with IDEA Event Categories
Coders should approach event coding mindful of the fact that every type of interaction (human, animal or otherwise) may be coded via the IDEA framework. Aside from these few null, non-events described above, every sentence contains an event and every event may be coded via the IDEA events categorization scheme.
Even reports such as, "The spirit of the late Elvis Presley roams the aisles of supermarkets in Tennessee," or "George Bush ate cabbage," can and should be coded. However, these types of events are relegated to the Other Incident, Other Human Action or Other Human Condition and Other Animal Incident categories; event categories that serve, in part, as containers for non-event events.
Coders should visit the IDEA site to familiarize themselves with the 200+ event codes in the IDEA framework.