This article outlines a rigorous method for studying the ways that news media frame contentious issues. The method is based on the VBPro family of computer programs for content analysis. Output from the VBPro mapping program for multidimensional scaling based on co-occurence of key terms is cluster analyzed to discern the frames or points of view in texts that can unambiguously be attributed to competing stakeholders. These frames can be used to investigate propositions about news stories. An example is presented from a study of 1,465 Associated Press articles on wetlands dispatched across an 11-year period beginning in 1982. The results demonstrate that the method provides an objective means of investigating stakeholder influence on news and patterns of change in frames across time.

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This study examines press coverage of pro- and anti-war demonstrations before and during the 2003 U.S.-led Iraq war. Computer analysis revealed the existence of partisan master frames in texts by pro- and anti-war organizational groups, and that news articles about each group reflected the frames of the group in question more so than the opposing group's frames. An examination of cues of legitimization and delegitimization in the news articles showed that cue words of delegitimization were used more in anti-war articles than in pro-war articles.

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Media coverage of presidential primaries is crucial to voters, and candidates often complain that news coverage fails to present their positions. This study used computerized content analysis to examine how the 1996 GOP presidential candidates framed themselves in press releases and how elite newspapers covered them. The analysis reveals that (1) candidate images were distinct in press releases and news stories; (2) candidate positions were represented differently in both; and (3) candidates were differentially successful in getting news media to reflect their positions. News media covered substantive concerns that were not included in candidate press releases.