Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons^™

The President And The Press: The Framing Of George W. Bush’S Speech To The United Nations, Stephen D. Cooper, Jim Kuypers, Matt Althous

Communications Faculty Research

In this essay, we provide a brief overview of how frames work, discuss the relationship of frames to the news media, and perform a qualitatively based, comparative framing analysis of President Bush’s speech to the United Nations and the mainstream American press response that followed. Findings suggest that by the end of formal military operations in Afghanistan, the press was increasingly framing its reports in such a way that President Bush’s public statements were inaccurately transmitted to the public at large. Three key findings are advanced: one, the press depicted the Bush administration as an enemy of civil liberties; two, …