The ohi-growth forest debate involves tii>o sides ("procut" and "pro-
save") presenting competing views of the issue. Television news stories may reflect one or theOther af theseframes through (1) choice of sources, (2) choiceof visuals,and (3) reporter's summary remarks. IVf examined four j /ears of coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC, and found that while the distribution of visuals was inconclusive, source use and reporter wrap-ups predominantly reflected Ihe procut frame. This may be because the procut frame emphasized an unambiguous conflict that was more ame nable to brief explanations.
The framing contest of claims makers in the same-sex marriage debate offers the opportunity to examine the role of power and the cultural context in framing. Content and frame analyses of stories from daily papers and wire services, and textual analysis of marriage in stories published in the states with anti-same-sex marriage ballot initiatives reveal that although same-sex marriage-friendly frames appear more often than traditional-marriage frames, it is the latter that set the parameters of the debate. Coverage does little to challenge hegemonic heteronormative definitions of marriage, and it is the study's mixed-methods approach that reveals the complexities of the ideological characterization of the debate.
This paper examines the geographic variation of newspaper coverage of the conflict over northern spotted owls and old‐growth forest protection in the Pacific Northwest. We address four issues: the extent to which newspaper “framing” of the conflict favored one side or the other, the way in which coverage varied among newspapers publishing in different cities around the country, the extent to which that variation was related to the newspapers' physical distance from the Pacific Northwest, and the extent to which variation was related to other characteristics of the newspapers' locations. We content‐analyzed the news coverage in ten major daily newspapers for the period 1990–1994. Dependent variables were number of stories, story length, number of sources, and the number of “pro‐cut” or “pro‐save” news sources and story themes appearing in each article. Independent variables were physical distance, economic ties, political dominance, lumber‐industry employment, environmentalism, and political and environmental pluralism. In the 408 stories we analyzed, there was a significant tendency to present story themes that parallel the pro‐cut side of the conflict. Regression results showed physical distance and economic connections both to be significant predictors of the number and length of stories and number of sources, with explained variance ranging from 38 to 78 percent. Variation in the framing of the story was more difficult to predict, although there does appear to be some relationship to voter registration and environmental membership patterns.
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