Much political communication research examines the effects of media on political attitudes and behavior. But what of the contributions of political behavior toward selective exposure? This study draws on literature from selective exposure and political socialization to explore whether one’s likelihood of engaging in selective exposure may originate in part during the “crystallization period” of young adulthood. After controlling for demographic and political variables in adolescence and mid-adulthood, an analysis of data from a four-wave longitudinal panel of “baby boomers” from 1965 to 1997 indicates that selective exposure can be traced to political protest activity during this time and, very marginally, in subsequent years. The implications for the future of selective exposure among emerging generations are discussed.
The emergence of a national “Tea Party” movement in the United States stimulated much media commentary regarding the movement’s origins, goals, participants, and even temperament. Unlike political movements of the recent past, the Tea Party stands starkly to the right. This study examines nightly cable news coverage of this movement by using key frames associated with the “protest paradigm”—the tendency for media to marginalize movements by drawing attention away from core concerns raised by such movements. We ask whether the protest paradigm can be applied to a right-wing movement and whether such application varies by the ideological leaning of a given source. That is, do cable news channels use frames in ways consistent with their respective ideological hues? We draw on a representative sample of stories regarding the national movement from the most viewed nightly news programs on Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN, with the Associated Press as a reference point. Results show significant differences across sources in issue and marginalization frame use. Although utilization of marginalization frames is popular among ideological channels, traditional news sources are not immune from using these devices.
How are the news media framing nanoscale science and technology? Primary concerns in the literature have been how news media weigh risks and benefits and how they classify nano with respect to news categories such as business, culture, discovery, or medicine. The authors contribute a new perspective by focusing on issue frames involving how stories imply responsibility for societal outcomes from technology. The authors develop four issue frames for stories about nanoscale science and technology: progress, regulation, conflict, and generic risk. These cut across the frame classifications and story tone assessments employed previously in the literature. Using data from the 10 largest U.S. newspapers for 1999-2008, the frequency of each frame over time is assessed. This study found that progress and generic risk frames, which deemphasize actors and responsibilities, dominated early coverage of nano but that frames involving regulation and the interplay of market incentives and regulatory responsibility mainly supplanted progress frames by 2007.