News Coverage of the Gulf Crisis and Public Opinion

Abstract

This article documents three types of media effects that operated on public opinion during the Persian Gulf crisis and war. First, the level of network news coverage matched the proportion of Gallup poll respondents naming the Gulf crisis as the nation's most important problem (agenda-setting ). Second, use of data from the 1988, 1990, and 1991 National Election Studies (NES) shows that the weight respondents accorded foreign policy performance when evaluating George Bush significantly increased (priming ) in the aftermath of the Gulf crisis. Third, content data (showing that network news coverage was preoccupied with military affairs and highly event oriented) and survey data are coupled to show that respondents reporting higher rates of exposure to television news expressed greater support for a military as opposed to a diplomatic response to the crisis (framing ). In conclusion, it is suggested that these effects, in combination with the nature of the media's information sources, were conducive to legitimizing the administration's perspective on the crisis.

“Recess Is Over, Students”: The Suburban’s Framing of Educational Issues and the 2012 Printemps Érable

“…For instance, Gitlin (1979) defines framing as "persistent patterns of cognition,interpretation,and presentation,of selection,emphasis,and exclusion,whether verbal or visual" (p. 12,Italics in original). Iyengar and Simon (1993), for their part, differentiate between episodic and thematic framing, which represent public issues as either specific events or in a more general context with background information and interpretive analysis.…”

“…Considering that The Suburban sought to question both the legitimacy and efficacy of the Printemps érable, it is unsurprising that the uprising tended to be framed more often as a series of individual events, or episodically, than as part of a larger movement (Iyengar & Simon, 1993;Smith et al, 2001). Only twice were actions associated with the revolt acknowledged as anything other than individual demonstrations, protests, or marches: on one occasion it was referred to as a boycott (April 25) and on the other, in scare-quotes, as "strikes" (May 16).…”

“…Furthermore, coverage of protest movements in the mainstream media seems to focus largely on more superficial attributes of individual events, rather than underlying thematic issues (Iyengar & Simon, 1993;Ashley & Olson, 1998;Smith, McCarthy, McPhail & Augustyn, 2001 …”

Television Frames of the 2008 Liberal and New Democrat Accord

“…Part of this negotiation entails that political players frame their message in ways that best capture media attention and acceptance (Aday, 2006;Chong & Druckman, 2007;Entman, 2007). Political players use frames to encourage audiences to think about issues in a particular way (e.g., Gross & D'Ambrosio, 2004;Iyengar & Simon, 1993;Price, Tewksbury, & Powers, 1997). Framing contests are especially important during a political crisis (Boin, Hart, & McConnell, 2009).…”

The H1N1 crisis: Roles played by government communicators, the public and the media

“…Most of the research into agenda-setting has focused on the primary level (Rogers, Hart & Dearing, 1997;Bryant & Miron, 2004). Key trajectories in agenda-setting research that would be particularly relevant to crisis communications strategy would include: (i) the media's ability to ramp up public awareness and relative importance of an issue very, very quickly (Iyengar & Simon, 1993); (ii) the potential for sparking intermedia agenda-setting effects (McCombs & Shaw, 1976;Ploughman, 1984;Mazur, 1987;Reese & Danielian, 1989); (iii) recognizing how interpersonal communications can influence rankorder of importance (Wanta & Wu, 1992); and (iv) the implications for changing the longer-term policy agenda (Wood & Peake, 1998;Soroka, 2002).…”