Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper discusses how the behaviors, roles, and standards of mainstream journalism are framed in political campaign news and empirically examines applicability and accessibility effects of these frames on individuals’ thoughts and opinions of the news media. Following previous work on framing in campaign news, we posited that journalists frame the press in three ways, called conduit, strategy, and accountability. Participants in a between-subjects experiment were exposed to a campaign story about an exemplar ‘character issue’ from the 1992 primary elections containing these frames. Regarding applicability effects, each frame activated frame-related thoughts. In addition, subjects exposed to the strategy press frame interpreted the press as being significantly more negative than individuals exposed to the conduit or accountability frame; subjects exposed to the accountability press frame interpreted the press as having higher quality than individuals exposed to the conduit or strategy frame. Regarding accessibility effects, only the accountability press frame prompted individuals to access attitudes about news performance to form opinions about negativity and quality.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In the 1980s and 1990s, the common thread amongst most scholarship on news analysis was its argument that U.S. news media performance features official domination of sourcing tendencies, and that this in turn results in a lack of independence from governmental positioning on the issues in respect to its most important public policies. Since both the 1970’s and 1980’s, however, developments which include the ending of the Cold War and the advancement of information and communication technologies (such as the advent of the internet, the handheld video recorder and the satellite telephone have been responsible, it is argued, in an increase of technology and event-driven news reporting. Scholars who have undertaken this type of analysis often argue that this shift in news reporting and content reveals a more independent, cantankerous and autonomous press than what was previously observed during the Cold War era. On face value, it would seem that the divergent strains between those that research instances of press subordination and exceptionalism would sharply clash and accomplish little in terms of complementing one another and realizing theoretical advances. This paper argues the opposite to be true and elucidates how the literature on press independence and event-driven reporting actually serve to usefully inform and assist theoretical frameworks such as the indexing and propaganda models. In thoroughly surveying and critically analyzing this literature, a better understanding can be gleaned of limitations, including limits to the general patterns of news reporting discerned by both hegemonic models and also by press exceptionalism itself.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: A model of the strategic interaction between politicians, publishers and newspaper editors offers insights on how competition on the media market and legal protection of freedom of speech affect theinformation regarding political malfeasance.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Understanding how genetic science is communicated to the lay public is of great import, given that media coverage of genetics is increasing exponentially and that the ways in which discoveries are presented in the news can have significant effects on a variety of health outcomes. To address this issue, this study examines the presentation of genetic research relating to cancer outcomes and behaviors (i.e., prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, smoking and obesity) in both the press release (n=23) and its subsequent news coverage (n=71) by using both quantitative content analysis and qualitative textual analysis. In contrast to earlier studies reporting that news stories often misrepresent genetics by presenting biologically deterministic and simplified portrayals (e.g., Mountcastle-Shah et al., 2003; Ten Eych & Williment, 2003), our data shows no clear trends in the direction of distortion toward deterministic claims in news articles. Also, other errors commonly attributed to science journalism, such as lack of qualifying details and use of oversimplified language (e.g., “fat gene”) are observed in press releases. These findings suggest that the intermediary press release rather than news coverage may serve as a source of distortion in the dissemination of science to the lay public. The implications of this study for future research in this area are discussed.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: This paper discusses how the behaviors, roles, and standards of mainstream journalism are framed in political campaign news and empirically examines applicability and accessibility effects of press frames on individuals’ media perceptions, specifically news information quality and negative aspects of content (cf. Kosicki & McLeod, 1990). Following previous work, we posited that journalists frame the press in three ways, called conduit, strategy, and accountability. Participants in a between-subjects experiment were exposed to a political campaign story about an exemplar ‘character issue’ containing these frames. Regarding applicability effects, exposure to each press frame differentially prompted individuals to think frame-relevant subtopics were present in the story. Further, subjects exposed to the strategy press frame interpreted the press as being significantly more negative than individuals exposed to the conduit or accountability frame; subjects exposed to the accountability press frame interpreted the press as having higher news information quality than individuals exposed to the conduit or strategy frame. Regarding accessibility effects, only the accountability press frame prompted individuals to access prior beliefs about the news media in order to form opinions about negativity and quality. Implications for future study of press framing are discussed.