Framing Health Care Reform: An Analysis of White House Information Subsidies and AP News Stories

This thesis was a text analysis using both thematic analysis and the computerized content analysis program, VBPro, to determine whether White House information subsidies on health care reform served as a framing influence on AP news stories. A census of all White House health care reform information subsidies and a random sample of AP news stories released between January 20, 1993, and September 30, 1994, were analyzed. The AP news stories were separated into two groups: those that cited the White House as a source first and those that did not. A computerized content analysis of these text files was done to determine how consistently the Clinton Administration's seven health care principles and five health care objectives were used in the subsidies and in the AP news stories.

The thematic part of the study found that the White House used economic and personal insecurity frames to identify the health care problem. The White House also blamed two groups, insurance companies and government bureaucracy, for causing the healthcare problem.

The computerized content analysis part of the study found that although the White House dominated as the first source cited in AP news stories on health care reform, the White House had only modest success in framing dominance for the proposed health care reform principles it offered.