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Hablando Sobre Inmigración: How Members Of The House Of Representatives In 118th Congress Frame The Issue Of Immigration, Guadalupe Castañeda Martinez

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

Historically, Immigration has played a critical role in forming the nation’s identity, economic prosperity, and promoting cultural diversity. Considering that the issue of Immigration has been in the news and is considered by many to be important and in need of policy solutions, little progress has been made on passing comprehensive immigration reform since the 113 th Congress in 2013. How members of Congress talk about Immigration is important because framing can influence public opinion, shaping perceptions of the issue and affecting policy decisions. Members may use their platform to communicate how they think about policy issues. Research has been …

Identifying Youth Appeals In Alcohol Alternative Social Media Content Through Framing, Melina Oneal

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Proposed regulations for alcohol advertising prevent beverage companies from targeting people under the legal drinking age. However, similar regulations for alcohol alternative beverages are less explored, which could allow alcohol alternative products to create awareness for alcoholic beverages among youth. Alcohol alternatives beverages, including no-alcohol and low-alcohol products, are increasing in popularity and can function as compliments to alcoholic products to decrease the total alcohol volume consumed or as substitutes for alcoholic products. Framing theory can be operationalized through the Content Appealing to Youth Index, an index of content elements found in research literature to be appealing to youth, to …

Black Lives Matter Vs. Anti-Lockdownand Stop The Steal: How Framing Affects Political Protests, Tarah Pierre-Louis

Honors Program Theses and Projects

For eight years the Black Lives Matter Movement has made consistent efforts to combat racial injustice, however, their message is often undermined by politicians, media elites, and partisan counter protestors who claim the movement is both aggressive and unwarranted. The same critics of the Summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests drew comparisons to Anti-Lockdown protests in early 2020, and the insurrection on Capitol Hill in January of 2021 – despite inherently different messages behind each respective protest. This project sets out to find how the framing of the Black Lives Matter movement compares to other partisan protests such as the …

Court Legitimacy & The Shadow Docket, Colton Tilley

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Framing The Democratic Socialist Movement: A Discourse Analysis Of Pro-Movement Literature, Elizabeth H. Rouse

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

In light of the rising prominence of the democratic socialist movement (DSM) in the United States, this thesis performs a discourse analysis of the frames utilized in pro-movement literature. Through the evaluation of five full-length books, I strive to answer the following research questions: How has pro-movement literature framed the DSM? What is the significance of the frames that have been employed? Based on qualitative observations reinforced with a minor quantitative study, I identify thirteen frames that are significant across pro-DSM literature. Then, in analyzing these frames, I argue that they can largely be categorized into three groups: 1) as …

Media Framing And The Election Integrity Protection Act Of 2021, Timothy Fay

Student Publications

It is no secret that today's media landscape is saturated with various narratives and frames that dictate how political events and debates are consumer by the American public. This paper seeks to analyze how national and local media outlets frame the Election Integrity Protection Act of 2021, one of the numerous voting bills that followed the 2020 Election. My expectation is that these sources will vary in terms of their partisan skew as a result of their geographic location and the ideologies of their viewers. This qualitative media analysis focuses on how each publication does or does not align one …

Biographical Availability In The Climate Movement, Nicole Cortes

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this study was to understand how social movements against climate change include or engage with the age demographics. This study is a qualitative analysis by observing Monterey and Santa Cruz climate events and interviewing activists from local organizations. The individuals who participated in this study have shared their experience being involved in the climate organizations as well as their perception of the climate movement’s impact. This research has been conducted to theorize and understand how youth climate movement frames the presentation of age and how that compares to the actual capacity of age in the movement. As …

Media Framing And Immigration Reform: An Examination Of The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, And Immigration Modernization Act Of 2013, Lorena Paredes

Political Science & International Studies | Senior Theses

As of 2020, there are 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States? Recently, the topic of immigration in the United States has become more controversial. In 2013, the U.S. Senate passed S.744 the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. When this bill was introduced many believed that it had a good chance of making it through the legislative process. The bill represented a compromise between Republicans and Democrats and addressed many problems associated with immigration. However, the bill was not passed by the House of Representatives, leaving the issue of immigration reform unresolved. The role …

Mother Nature And Menvironmental Politics: Analyzing How Gendered Frames Affect Support For The Clean Air Act, Grace Montgomery

Senior Independent Study Theses

While environmental issues are becoming more significant and frequent, concern for the environment varies. Research has shown a gender gap in environmental concern, particularly in that males see helping the environment as compromising their masculinity (Brough et al. 2016, 568). My I.S. examines whether and how gendered frames shape public support for the United States’ environmental air pollution policy, the Clean Air Act. In order to connect an issue to a frame, an individual will draw upon a relevant schema and apply elements from that schema in order to understand the issue. Gender is an accessible schema that strongly shapes …

Climate Translators: The Impacts Of Broadcast News On The Political Divide Over Climate Change In The United States, Dylan V. Macy

Pitzer Senior Theses

In many instances, television news is the primary outlet through which the public gains knowledge on climate change. Both the perceived threat of climate change and American news media have grown politically divided since the 1980s. I make the argument that American news media influences the partisan divide over climate change. In addition to the political landscape of news media, focus on political events and figures in climate coverage further contributes to a partisan divide. Supporting these claims are research displaying how climate change news is processed in a partisan manner and a selection of three case study periods in …

Seeds Of Suspicion: The Perpetual Cycle Of Anti-Muslim Stereotypes, Middle East Intervention, And Terrorism, Christopher Ledford

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

The central theory guiding my research is that interstate conflict, at least as covered in mass media, leaves residual cultural attitudes that can shape the political context in which elites formulate policy. Specifically, U.S. interventionism in the Middle East has given rise to fundamental hostilities, founded on misguided biases, that shape involvement in the region today. I focus on one step within that broader theory, to test it empirically: the hypothesis that anti-Muslim stereotypes, when activated, will shape an individual’s foreign-policy preferences. I begin by considering competing accounts that link 1) ethnocentrism or 2) targeted stereotypes with support for the …

Political Journalists Tweet About The Final 2016 Presidential Debate, Hannah Hopper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Past research shows that journalists are gatekeepers to information the public seeks. Using the gatekeeping and agenda-setting theory, this study used a content analysis of tweets from political journalists during the final 2016 presidential debate to examine social media usage in efforts to convey information to followers and whether social media has allowed for journalists to present a more transparent view of candidates to the public. This study used feminist political theory to further analyze whether the tweets from political journalists portrayed Hillary Clinton, the female candidate, with stereotypical “female” traits, such as more emotional and more trustworthy. Applying these …

Reducing Partisan Bias In Political Reporting For A Better Informed Public, Emily Holland

Journalism

This study focused on bias in political journalism, attempting to find how political journalists today can improve the quality of their work for a better informed public. By collecting data from the literature currently available, gaps within said literature were found. Therefore, three experts within the relevant fields of political communications research, political journalism, and editing were asked the same questionnaire in an individual interview setting in order to resolve the unanswered questions. These interviews were used to further the information already available in the literature, while also attempting to fill in the research question gaps.

After the data was …

Terrorism: A Tool For Shaping Public Opinion, Jonathan E. Voisich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Public Opinion matters on issues of foreign policy. This makes controlling public opinion very important for governments. In this paper I will argue that elites use terrorism both as a tool for instilling fear and by creating a certain image of groups they wish to support or destroy in order to shape public opinion. I will examine both literature on framing and public opinion data on foreign policy to show why public opinion is so important and how it can be shaped. The two case studies showing terrorism being used in these ways will be the Ronald Reagan administration’s policy …

Opinions On Gun Control: Evidence From An Experimental Web Survey, Mallory Treece

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

While a sizable literature exists on framing, little research extends this to gun control. In this study I analyze how partisan framing influences support for gun control. Using an experimental web survey, individual level data shows that Democrats in particular respond more favorably when gun control is framed as sponsored by fellow Democrats. In contrast, controlling for partisanship, gun owners more negatively react to gun control framed as Democrat-sponsored. These findings suggest the extent of support for gun control and ways in which parties can frame the issue in their favor.

Who Said What? The Effects Of Source Cues In Issue Frames, Todd K. Hartman, Christopher R. Weber

Todd K. Hartman

Drawing on previous research concerning the role that source cues play in political information processing, we examine whether an ideological identity match between the source of a framed message and the respondent moderates framing effects. We test our hypotheses in two experiments concerning attitudes toward a proposed rally by the Ku Klux Klan. In Experiment 1 (N = 274), we test our hypothesis in a simple issue framing experiment. We find that framing effects occur for strong identifiers only when there is a match between the ideology of the speaker and respondent. In Experiment 2 (N = 259), we examine …

Public Evaluations Of Presidents, Brian Newman, Paul Gronke

Brian Newman

An overview of the presidential approval literature that highlights questions for future research.