Page 243 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

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news form and content. Better identification of the influences on framing
patterns and the effects of such patterns on subsequent behavior are high
priorities for political communication research. Careful empirical content
analysis work such as that of Huddie (1997) is valuable in identifying
frames in news coverage. Tying audience frames to news content, how-
ever, may require considerable understanding of not only media content
but also social movements and their role in the process of bringing issues
to the fore in public life. McCarthy (1994) develops an extended empirical
case of the interplay of social movement actors and public officials in the
identification of drunk driving as a key issue. Case studies offer rich
opportunities for examining the role of deliberation, framing, and a wide
range of political and social actors (Pan & Kosicki, 2001) in complex issues
such as health care reform.
Shah, Domke, and Wackman (1996) attempt to study the effects of
framing issues in terms of ethical values such as morality, honesty, and
compassion. Individuals who encounter such frames in public discourse
are more likely to view not only that issue, but also other issues along sim-
ilar lines. These results extend even to political tolerance issues (Nelson,
Oxley, & Clawson, 1997) among others.

Principled Reasoning. Patterns of media use may affect how citizens
arrive at their decisions about public policy. Coding of answers to open-
ended questions revealed two distinctive reasons citizens gave for their
decisions on First Amendment issues (McLeod, Sotirovic, Voakes, Guo, &
Huang, 1998). Those with strong public affairs media use were more
likely to invoke principles among the reasons they gave. Their principled
reasoning, in turn, was associated with decisions supporting civil liber-
ties. In contrast, those with customary patterns of high television enter-
tainment viewing expressed more negative affect in their responses and
were less supportive of rights. The effects of education on reasoning and
support for rights worked entirely indirectly through patterns of media
use and knowledge.

Perceptions of the Political System

Self-Interest and Systemic Perceptions. Making connections between
the individual-cognitive and social systems levels is a problem common
to all areas of social science (Price, Ritchie, & Eulau, 1991). The problem is
particularly acute for political communication, however. Most political
action and power relationships operate at the societal or other systemic
levels, whereas the bulk of empirical theory and research concentrate on
the behavior of the individual citizen. Although we think of voting as a
private act (save for the probing of pollsters) based on narrow self-