Interest Groups, the Media, and Policy Debate Formation: An Analysis of Message Structure, Rhetoric, and Source Cues

Why interest organizations do what they do: Assessing the explanatory potential of ‘exchange’ approaches

“…The news media or public environment consists of journalists and other relevant news intermediaries (blogs, conferences, public debates). The interaction between journalists and interest organizations has always been of particular interest in social movement research (for example, Gamson, 2004;Andrews and Caren, 2010), and within this field it has occasionally been explicitly theorized as an exchange relationship (for example, Wolfsfeld, 1984Wolfsfeld, , 1991Terkildsen et al, 1998;Koopmans, 2004;Binderkrantz and Christiansen, 2012).…”

Analysis of Media Coverage on Breastfeeding Policy in Washington State

“…67 The voice of parents in news media is likely influenced by the reliance of the media on spokespersons who can supply drama and emotion and who can provide the media with memorable and quotable opinions. 68 Gearhart and Dinkle also found parents to be a prominent source of messages in the content analysis of breastfeeding in television news. 58 It is good journalistic practice to quote a variety of spokespersons to provide balance and interest to stories.…”

“…58 It is good journalistic practice to quote a variety of spokespersons to provide balance and interest to stories. 68 This analysis suggests several potential opportunities for improving media advocacy for breastfeeding policy development. 24 Despite trends toward more breastfeeding policy coverage over time, fewer than 20 news stories per year covered this topic during the study period.…”

Congress, framing, media and bankruptcy reform, 1997-2005.

“…Issue dualism is a concept that describes media actions to appear objective. According to the hypothesis of issue dualism, journalists report statements from at least two sides of an issue regardless of expertise or factual content to appear to be reporting the objective truth (Terkildsen et aL 1998). When policy elites frame issues in terms of the message structure employing interpretive packages and taking advantage of issue dualism, the media generally repOlt the frame in its entirety (Callahan & Schnell, 2001 ).…”

“…Another important aspect of this line of research is the media autonomy model developed by Terkildsen, Schnell, and Ling (1998) to disentangle the relationships between the media, interest groups. and political elites.…”