Empirical Test of Media Framing Effects
Introduction: The aim of this empirical study was to test the effects of media framing on university students, by researching the question, “To what extent does Media Framing affect the opinions of university students? ... Theoretical Considerations: The analysis was based upon the theoretical approach of the Framing theory. Framing is the process by which a communication source, such as a news organization, defines and constructs a political issue or public controversy. It can be said that the framing of a news story by journalists, particularly stories that can be considered controversial, can influence the public’s opinion on that issue. Frames are generally employed for organizational purposes so that the media can communicate efficiently with audiences, but news frames can activate certain ideas, judgements and contrasts concerning issues, policies and politicians. ... ” Media framing often draws upon individuals’ pre-existing beliefs or fears and supports them. If public opinion can be altered by mere media attention to a certain issue, then it seems sensible to hypothesize that media framing can strongly affect society’s opinion. ... Empirical Analysis: A story reported in the Daily Mail was chosen to be the focus of the study. ... ” It was difficult to decide on a neutral question as it is clear that the structure and phrasing of the question can also influence peoples’ opinions which would detract from the main objective of the project, where the news framing had to be the central focus. ... There are a number of reasons why the empirical project did not obtain the hypothesized results. According to the study it seems that media framing has little affect on students’ opinions, but it can be argued that in general students tend to reasonably set in their viewpoints and these short framed articles were therefore unable to convince them to change their opinion. ... The question could be extended so it was not only students that were asked to participate, meaning that other people, possibly older individuals, parents and professionals, would have extended the project further and they may have been more or less receptive to media framing, leading to more conclusive results. ... “Media Framing of a Civil Liberties Conflict and Its Effect on Tolerance” in American Political Science Review Vol.