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28 September 2005

Media Effects

A recent article in Perspectives by Amy Gershkoff and Shana Kushner examines the effects of framing on the shaping of public opinion toward the war in Iraq. Their thesis is straightforward: there was minimal opposition in the run up to war by either the Democrats or the news media, and the Bush administration successfully linked Iraq and terrorism in the public's mind. According to their content analysis, even the New York Times had about an equal balance of positive and negative stories about Iraq in the eight months or so before the war.

While "the media" may have been singing the same tune about the march to war, we have all witnessed the explosion of news outlets over the last decade or so. Accordingly, it seems time to rethink the way we study media effects. Content analysis of major newspapers is quite easy given the searchable databases available. But with the proliferation of talk radio, cable news, and yes, even the blogosphere, I wonder if we have passed the point of diminishing returns relying solely on the Times or the Washington Post as our sources of data. The politicians certainly seem to have gotten the point, and deployed their spokespeople accordingly.

Posted by Ian Yohai at September 28, 2005 12:15 PM