Media Salience and the Process of Framing: Coverage of the Columbine School Shootings

Abstract

This study examines how the media can build a news event's salience by emphasizing different aspects of the event during its life span. A two-dimensional measurement scheme is proposed as a systematic way of examining media frames. This scheme yields cross-issue generalizability that liberates framing research from issue-specific boundaries. A content analysis examining the coverage of the Columbine school shootings in the New York Times documents the use of multiple frames on the time and space dimensions, visualizes framing as a process over time, and identifies certain frame-changing patterns in the coverage of this highly salient news event.

Audience Gatekeeping in the Twitter Service: An Investigation of Tweets about the 2009 Gaza Conflict

“…Even when treating the same event, the editorial board evaluates news sources differently over a period of time because the attributes to be highlighted vary depending on the phase of the event's progress (Chyi and McCombs, 2004). In a similar vein, audience gatekeepers are likely to find different information channels interesting during different phases of the development of the event.…”

Frame Contention between News Sources and News Media: Framing the Dispute of Teaching Mathematics and Science in English

“…For instance, Semetko & Valkenburg (2000) in their study of the "Eurotop" meeting covered 46 days before and five days on and after the event. Chyi & McCombs (2004) With the target newspapers and item collection period fixed, three coders, all proficient in Mandarin and familiar with the issue under studied, were engaged to carry out the content analysis. A background check was done on the coders to make sure none of them affiliated to any of the news sources.…”

Impact of Reporter Work Role Identity on News Story Source Selection: Implications for Coverage of Agricultural Crises

“…The relationship of such frames with sources used should be explored, as well as frame shifting that may occur as a story matures (Chyi & McCombs, 2004).…”

“…Source selection plays a major role in constructing media agenda and frames, with agenda-setting theorists maintaining that reporters choose their sources based on the agenda their newspapers seek to advance (Dearing & Rogers, 1996) and that sources contribute in major ways to constructing story frames (Ashlock, Cartmell & Kelemen, 2006;Irlbeck, 2009;Zoch & Turk, 1998). Additionally, agenda and frames may evolve over the course of an ongoing story, with sources changing to match that evolution as a story "matures" (Chyi & McCombs, 2004;Sumpter & Braddock, 2002;Martin, 2003). While this article does not explore news selection variables and their relationship to framing and agenda-setting per se, it does use those theoretical ideas to help select variables that should be studied.…”