Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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 …

Online News Portrayal During The Covid-19 Health Crisis And Journalism's Role In Misinformation In The U.S., Michou Ducilon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a wealth of new information regarding the virus's origin and treatment. Regrettably, the vast amount of online information has resulted in the proliferation of misinformation, as the World Health Organization reported. To investigate whether journalists may have contributed to this problem, a qualitative analysis was conducted on 15 news articles from top-tier media outlets. Using NVivo software, the articles were analyzed to identify linguistic words and visuals that fell into coding categories based on Behrendt's (2008) contextual analysis for evaluating text. Each article was then coded again to identify common themes. During this process, new …

News Media Framing Of Disabilities In Ghana: Journalistic Practices Amidst Advocacy Calls For Change, Pamela Ofori Boateng

Communication ETDs

The study contributes to expanding scholarly research on media portrayals of people with disabilities in Ghana. Drawing on theories of framing, ableism, and intersectionality, I analyzed news stories published in Graphic.com.gh. in 2021 and 2022 to explore how the editorial practices framed people with disabilities and how framing patterns revealed change and continuity in representation. The findings affirmed a shift to using more diverse and appropriate language to represent people with disabilities more fairly and accurately; the categorization of most of the disability stories under “General News,” which suggests the significance attached to disability related stories; and the …

Framing Esports’ Jedi Issues: A Case Study In Media Irresponsibility, David Painter, Brittani Sahm

Faculty Publications

Purpose: This investigation analyzes Asian, European, and North American coverage of esports’ justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) issues as a case study of media organizations’ communications on these topics.

Design/methodology/approach: This quantitative content analysis describes coverage of esports’ race, gender, age, and social class issues to draw inferences about media organizations’ abilities to meet their social responsibilities when reporting on organizational JEDI issues.

Findings: There were significant differences across continents; however, most stories only mentioned gender and age, seldom noting esports’ race or social class issues.

Research limitations/implications: Although all stories analyzed were published in English, the findings extend …

Exploring News Coverage About Plant-Based Milk: A Content Analysis, Elise Regusci, Courtney Meyers, Nan Li, Erica Irlbeck

Journal of Applied Communications

Plant-based milk has provided more options to consumers who are looking for an alternative to dairy milk. Recently, sales of plant-based milk have increased while dairy milk has continued to decline. To gather more insight into what is being discussed in news coverage about plant-based milk, a quantitative content analysis was conducted on 250 articles published from 2011 to 2020. These articles were coded for word count, location of publication, frame, and article type. The seven frames used to describe plant-based milk were Environment, Animal Welfare, Health, Economics, Labeling, Taste, and Trend. There was an increase in articles published each …

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 …

Pick A Horse, Ditch The Goat: The Rise Of The Spoiler Frame In A Bipartisan Election Discourse, Barbara Alexandra Raftes Dahlgren

Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly, public opinion shows Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are some of the most onerous in recorded history, and Americans want to see third-party options alongside them. Half of Americans use televised news to stay informed, but the two-party horserace leaves little room for the multiple candidates on the ballot. This analysis explores the prominent horserace discourse of the 2012 and 2016 televised coverage of the U.S. presidential races and the “spoiler effect” frame within. Following Jill Stein’s Green Party candidacy through the months surrounding each election, the coverage advanced her portrayal from “nonfactor” to “spoiler” despite the consistency in …

Theory And Practice: Selecting And Implementing Effective Framing To Present Climate Science To A Lay Audience, Lauren Wilson

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the advantages and effectiveness of using storytelling in the form of narrative journalism to communicate the topic of climate science to a lay audience. The thesis combines personal experience with secondary research in order to support the claim that framing the issue in such a manner effectively communicates the severity and impact of climate change.

Through my research I discovered that storytelling is not only a social tool for humans, but a means to safely and efficiently pass on vital information to those unfamiliar with certain knowledge. The use of narrative has …

Finding The Women In The Words: Examining The Framing Of Female Victims In Homicide Reporting, Isabelle Gillibrand

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This study examines the print media coverage of two similar 2019 murders, one of a White woman and one of a Black woman, to research the framing of female victims in homicide reporting. Previous research identified how components from the overall structure of details down to the specifics of word choice impact how readers depict and remember victims. Through a discourse analysis, the Alexandria Kostial-Aniah Blanchard case study found how the coverage downplayed each victim, mainly through the placement of details, word choice and the effects of various journalistic standards, including the inverted pyramid structure and delayed identification. By understanding …

Framing And Newspaper Coverage Of Racial Integration, Amy Unruh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For many Americans who grew up in the 1960s, the first published information about Africans came directly from Africa, in the form of exotic photographs and stories in National Geographic. Susan Goldberg, Editor in Chief of National Geographic, addressed the issue of race portrayals in the magazine, reflecting on the realization that National Geographic often provided readers “their first look at the world” while rarely acknowledging the struggles of race in the United States. The magazine displayed full-color photographs depicting Africans from many nations, dressed in native clothing and jewelry, positioned in settings that implied dignity, beauty and strength. Meanwhile, …

Framing Death And Suffering: An Examination Of Photographs Of Dead And Dying During The U. S. Civil War, World War Ii, And The Vietnam War, Richard Anthony Lewis

Dissertations

The dissertation analyzes photographic images of dead bodies that appeared in news settings related to warfare in the United States in three distinct eras – the 1860s, the 1940s, and the 1960s. The primary subject of the analysis are photographs of corpses created in the context of the American Civil War (1861-1865), World War II including the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust (1939-1946), and conflict and war in Vietnam (1950-1975). While the sample represents a partial catalogue of images of the dead in the context of warfare since photography emerged in the 1840s as a medium for disseminating news, the …

“Invaders”: U.S. Right Wing Media’S Framing Of Muslim Immigrants, Faizullah Jan, Sayyed Fawad Ali Shah

Research, Publications & Creative Work

This study identifies and examines the framing patterns in the U.S. right-wing media coverage of the President Donald Trump administration’s ban on immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The study is directed by one research question: How did the right-wing media frame the ban on Muslim immigrants? A total of 53 articles (news stories, features, and opinion pieces) from two right-wing U.S. media outlets, Daily Caller and Breitbart News, were identified and included in the analysis. Framing theory served as a framework for the analysis of the data. Findings of this study show that the right-wing media used negative frames …

Journalism Practice In A Country Facing Division Threats : Newspaper Framing Of Secession Agitations In Nigeria, Somtochukwu Victor Okeke, Ogechi Eucharia Okwumba, Greg H. Ezeah, Gever Verlumun Celestine

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Violent agitations for the secession of South-East from Nigeria is one of the conflict situations that has continued to persist, even after the civil war. The conflict is shredded in political and ethic alignments, thus threatening to drive the country into a second civil war. This study examined media framing of secession agitations pioneered by Indigenous People of Biafra. In doing so, a total of four newspapers- The Vanguard, The Punch, The Guardian and This Day- were content analysed while the study duration was June 1^st 2015 to June 1^st 2018. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used …

“Where Are We Now?” The Image Construction Of Arabs And Muslims In Bodyguard, Safa K. Khairy

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade Arab and Muslim representations in the media have been either negative or overly simplified as a way to avoid criticism from watchdog groups. Arab and Muslim culture is viewed by the mainstream Western perspective as different, and inferior. According to Edward Said this divide and hierarchy between Eastern and Western comes through the process of Othering and is at the heart of Orientalism. This thesis investigates how Arabs and Muslims are Othered through a case study of the successful BBC television series Bodyguard.

Bodyguard presents the British government and police force attempting to stop various terrorist …

West Virginia’S Sugary Drink Tax: Examining Print Media Frames In Local News Sources, Lauri Andress, Ogaga Urhie, Christine Compton

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Framing is an important aspect of the policy process that helps the public and decision makers sort through and resolve highly charged claims about an issue. Through slight changes in the presentation of issues, a framing effect may alter public support. The way a proposed sugary drink tax is discussed in public discourse and by the media significantly influences policy acceptance. Given the public health significance of obesity and diabetes in West Virginia (WV) the study of media frames employed to represent a sugary drink tax policy is useful.

Methods: Using quantitative content analysis, this study assessed news articles—published …

Framing Of European Union Borders In Online News: Multimodal Discourses Of Inclusion And Exclusion, Ivana Cvetkovic

Communication ETDs

In times of crisis, online news media, on whose reports people heavily rely for information and interpretation of complex European affairs, play an important role in production of knowledge and negotiation of the meanings of the European Union’s response to the “migrant crisis” in 2015 when more than million migrants reached Europe after fleeing their home countries. This research project examines how European online news outlets constructed notions of borders, space, mobility and migration, and thus promoted particular institutionalized discourses on inclusion and exclusion with profound ideological implications. A secondary goal of this research is to explore the particular ways …

#Me Too: An Analysis On Whose Sexual Assault Stories The New York Times Publishes, Alyssa Evans

Scholars Week

Source representation in media impacts the public’s perception of social issues and groups represented. This study examines the extent to which coverage by The New York Times of the #MeToo movement includes a diverse background of victims of sexual assault and harassment. An extension of research is added to scholarly discourse on framing of sexual assault victims and the inclusivity of the Times’ reporting on sexual assault. Human sources most often sourced in #MeToo-related stories analyzed were white female victims who held jobs in the entertainment industry or politics. The second most often represented source was found to be white …

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 …

#Metoo: A Study On Sexual Assault As Reported In The New York Times, Alyssa Evans

Occam's Razor

This study examines the extent to which coverage by The New York Times of the #MeToo movement includes a diverse background of victims of sexual assault and harassment. Source representation in media impacts the public's perception of social issues and groups represented. This case study tracks demographic coverage of sexual harassment and assault in a high-profile news organization. Data gathered examines The New York Times framing of victims and inclusivity of reporting over a two-month period in 2017. Findings suggest that victims most often sourced in #MeToo-related stories are Caucasian females employed in the entertainment industry or in politics. This …

How Newspapers In China, India And Bangladesh Framed The Rohingya Crisis Of 2017, Md Khadimul Islam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Rohingya persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017 attracted intense international media attention. In light of normative theory, media of different countries are assumed to cover an issue differently because of differences in the socio-political systems involved. This study examines how media from three different countries framed the Rohingya Muslim issue. These systematic and qualitative content analyses of six newspapers from three neighboring countries — China, India and Bangladesh — examines media framing of Myanmar in light of Robinson’s (2001) Policy-Media Interaction model. The timeframe of the study was one month, starting on the first day of Myanmar’s Rohingya …

A Most Violent Game: A Framing Study On The Media’S Coverage Of Concussions And Injuries In Sports, Theodore P. Schwartz Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following is a study on the effects of framing the topic of concussions in the sports media. The study examined the differences between “perceptions of seriousness” of concussions based on two article conditions and how men and women, athletes and non-athletes, sports fans and non-sports fans all viewed the seriousness of concussions. Other variables of analysis included testing participants for their emotional empathy and aggressiveness in relation to their views on concussions. The findings of the study did not confirm most of the hypotheses, but the major hypothesis was supported. For participants who read the “serious” article condition, they …

Victims Or Heroes? How Did Journalists Frame The Ebola Crisis In Liberia?, Tamah Kamlem, Nwanneamaka Ume, Skylar Lisse, Eme Udoh, Jialin Meng

GW Research Days 2016 - 2020

The Ebola Virus Disease epidemic in West Africa in 2014 with over 11,000 deaths made headlines worldwide, causing fear and posing a challenge to traditional media, entrusted with the task of reporting about the spread of the disease. Individuals and communities rely on media to obtain health information, including decisions related to disease prevention and behavior to protect their health. Therefore, frames used by the media to report about health emergencies impact public perceptions. Mass media framing during crises has been associated with emotional and behavioral responses that are consistent with the thematic depiction of unfolding events. Moreover, message frames …

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 …

Hydraulic Fracturing In The United States: A Framing Analysis, Kenneth Stephen Cardell Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This research considers the issue of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of extracting natural gas from shale and coal deposits. The technology, commonly referred to as “fracking,” has only been employed on an industrial scale since the late 1990s and is increasingly becoming the focus of news coverage. In this thesis research, a representative sample of both national and regional newspaper coverage on the issue of hydraulic fracturing is analyzed, looking at several key elements of framing. This study also examines differences in issue framing between the national elite press and regional news sources, as well as based upon partisanship. …

How The Greek Press Constructed The "Greek Economic Crisis", Maria Elena Kuntz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since 2008, there has been a surge of interest in and research on the relationship between news media and economic reporting, particularly as it concerns financial crises. The 2008 U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, quickly followed by the economic crisis that began to unfold in Greece in 2009, spurred researchers to examine how newspapers around the world report on the complex, globalized economy. In the pursuit of understanding transnational economic processes, publics rely on news media to provide information about the meaning of economic events, especially crises. As such, newspapers are key players in constructing the narratives of crises.

This study …

Comparing News Frames About The Syrian Crisis Between The Kommersant And The Financial Times, Anton Dinerstein

Masters Theses

This is an exploratory comparative study aimed to examine media frames about ongoing civil war in Syria. The civil uprising started on March 15, 2011, and turned into a civil war after May 8, 2011. The conflict has lasted for more than four years, and more than 220,000 people have died since it began. During the conflict, both the Syrian government and military opposition were accused of extreme cruelty and of using chemical weapons. However, there was no official proof of using chemical weapons until the August 21, 2013, when Syrian government forces used chemical weapons during their attack on …

The Golden Boy: An Examination Of Framing In National And Local News Coverage Of Jaylen Fryberg, Becca Freimuth

Scholars Week

This framing analysis of national and local news coverage uses contextual analysis to examine how both print media and television media portrayed the 14-year-old shooter of the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting. After the October 24, 2014 shooting in a town of roughly 63,000 people, news media began coverage almost instantly-- including national news media. This study adds to previous research done on mass murders because the recency of the shooting means the coverage has yet to be looked at with a critical eye. In the analysis it was discovered that the majority of the coverage framed the shooter as a …

Framing Reality: Portrayals Of Climate Change In The "Las Vegas Review-Journal", 1997-2014, Jason Ryan Holley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Discussions of human-caused climate change have become an increasingly salient artifact of various media in recent years. With regard to print media in particular, scholars have uncovered general increases in the frequencies with which climate change articles are published, tantamount to the annual reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) advocating the detriments of human activities (particularly carbon dioxide emissions) on the natural environment. Among such reports—be they scientific or anecdotal—writers and journalists have had to interpret the ongoing discussions and evidence surrounding climate change, and develop schemas (or frames) in which to situate arguments. These arguments have …

Promoting Awareness Of Teen Pregnancy Through Multimedia Storytelling: The Case Of Elizabeth House In Ecuador, Mary Hall

Honors Program Projects

Advocacy journalism takes the basic principles of journalism — factual integrity, clear concise writing, storytelling, and educating the public — and uses them to tell the story of a particular cause or organization. Advocacy journalism moves one step past the traditional confines of journalism to reach an audience with a particular message. As Reader (2011) said, "Objectivity is about presenting what is, but advocacy is about changing what will be" (p. 2).

The goal of this project was to use advocacy journalism within a blog platform to raise awareness of the work for the not-for-profit organization, Casa Elizabeth, a home …

Framing Of Jacob Zuma And Polygamy In Die Burger (2008-2013), Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

No abstract provided.