Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2001

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Communication

Major Professor

M. Mark Miller

Committee Members

Michael Keene, Edward Caudill, Candace White

Abstract

The obvious importance of how the news media frame issues and how news frames are influenced has made framing theory a fast growing area of communications research. The call for more framing research by communications scholars led to this study's examination of how an issue is framed by the news media, the impact that sources have on determining the news frame, and the possible influence of news frames on public opinion and policymaking.

The frame analysis performed in this study examines the effects of framing on the debate of the complex policy issue of former President Clinton's health care reform plan. The influence of an interest group's frame is analyzed as it travels from the interest group (stakeholder) to the news media to the public and to policymakers. The framing effects are also examined across the debate over Clinton's health care plan from its beginning to its end. The analysis covered the time from Clinton's inauguration and his immediate appointment of the Task Force for Health Care Reform to the announcement of the death of the health care reform bill in Congress.

This study employs the relatively new quantitative method of Frame Mapping which provides more accurate and more objective means for identifying, measuring, and comparing frames in context. Frame Mapping improves the researcher's ability to analyze stakeholders' frames and news frames in context and to measure the influence of stakeholders' frames on news frames. This study also incorporates a classical rhetorical analysis that is used to analyze stakeholders' frames and news frames in context.

In the process of analyzing the dynamics of stakeholders' frames and news frames, the researcher attempted to bring frame researchers closer to two important goals—to employ more reliable methods for identifying, measuring, and comparing news frames in context and to provide reasons why news frames shift across time. The process of analyzing the span of framing effects outlined in this study required several significant steps:

1. Stakeholders' frames had to be identified, measured, and compared by locating significant key terms in the context of stakeholders' news releases.

2. From the need for more reliable means of identifying, measuring, and comparing frames in texts. Frame Mapping, a quantitative method for frame analysis, was employed.

3. The influence of stakeholders' frames on news frames had to be determined by locating stakeholders' key terms in the context of newspaper stories.

4. The influence of stakeholders' frames and news frames on public opinion had to be determined by comparing the trends in news frames to the trends in public opinion polls.

5. The impact of rhetorical attributes found in news releases on the success of gaining news coverage had to be determined.

The results of the stakeholder frame analysis supported the hypotheses in that Frame Mapping successfully identified, measured, and compared stakeholders' key terms in news releases. The key terms identified by the Frame Mapping method proved to be significant representations of the frames put forth by the various stakeholders.

The results of the news frame analysis supported the two main, general hypotheses that stakeholders' frames are manifested in newspaper stories across time and that news frames shift across time. Stakeholders' key terms were used by journalists in the discussions of health care reform, suggesting that stakeholders' frames were manifested in news stories. Also, the news coverage of five of six frames either significantly increased or decreased from phase one to phase two, demonstrating that news frames shift across time.

Also, the trends in news coverage of stakeholders' frames were expected to follow the trends in public opinion. Public support for Clinton's plan decreased across time, so the trends in newspaper coverage of the favoring frames were expected to decrease. Similarly, public opposition to Clinton's plan increased across time, so the trends in newspaper coverage of opposing frames were expected to increase. However, the results of these specific hypothesis tests were inconclusive. Only two of three favoring frames significantly decreased across time, and only one of the three opposing frames significantly increased across time.

The results of the analysis of the influence of news frames on public opinion were expected to show significant, positive relationships between trends in news coverage of favoring frames and in favoring public opinion. Similarly, significant, positive relationships between trends in news coverage of opposing frames and in opposing public opinion were expected. The results of the analysis were inconclusive. Only two of the three favoring frames were positively correlated with the trends in public support, while only one of the three opposing frames was positively correlated with the trend in public opposition.

The results of the rhetorical analysis were expected to show how the situation, the writer, audience, and arguments contributed to the success of a stakeholder receiving news coverage of its position.

The results showed that the situation had a great impact on whether a frame was accurately portrayed in the media and whether the stakeholder was associated with that frame. For example, some stakeholders were placed at an advantage over others by being central to a debate, resulting in their frame being represented more accurately and more often by the news media.

The contributions of the writer as a source also proved to be important. In many cases, the only time that a stakeholder's frame was mentioned in a news story was when the stakeholder was used as a source.

The importance of being able to meet the needs of the audience of journalists was illustrated by the inability of some stakeholders to provide informative news releases. These groups did not provide Journalists with the information that they could use, which may have contributed to journalists not incorporating the stakeholders' frames into news stories.

Most of the frames as messages were well-structured and delivered in a logical and well-organized manner. One of the most interesting results from this analysis was the ability of a single phrase or word to set the grounds for how an issue would be discussed in the newspaper stories.

Overall, this dissertation offered several methodological and substantive contributions to framing research. By looking at the effects of framing across communications and across time, this study showed how stakeholders' frames can affect how a policy issue is reported by the media, how the issue is received by the public, and how the frames can be incorporated into Congressional debates. Also, this study shows the importance of pursuing quantitative frame analysis. Frame Mapping methods that employ VBPro's concept mapping programs allow the researcher to identify, measure, and directly compare the frames used by competing stakeholders.

This study also showed the importance of combining the quantitative methods of Frame Mapping and the qualitative methods of a rhetorical analysis. The combination of these methods proved to be beneficial in identifying multiple frames and revealing the importance of their interactions.

The quantitative methods of Frame Mapping proved to be reliable, and the rhetorical analysis confirmed its accuracy. Also, the inclusion of a rhetorical analysis led to several important observations on how multiple frames operate in mass communication. The combination of these methods offered a better understanding of why the salience of a stakeholder's frame can rise and fall and why news frames shift across time.

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