Media Framing of Products Liability Lawsuits and the Social Production of Legal Knowledge

产品责任诉讼的媒体框架与法律知识的社会生产

• 批准号: 9818581
• 负责人: Michael McCann
• 金额: $ 15.99万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-05-01 至 2001-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9818581&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Media; Framing; Products; Liability; Lawsuits

A heated political debate has raged in recent years over the rationality and fairness of products liability litigation and of the U.S. tort law system generally. Critics charge that tort claims, plaintiff victories, and large punitive damages awards have "skyrocketed" in the last two decades at great economic and social cost to the nation. May social scientists have responded that such criticisms are grounded in unrepresentative anecdotes and "horror stories" that obscure the patterns and implications of actual legal practice. The primary reason for the apparent political appeal of tort reform, scholars argue, is the effective manipulation of rhetoric by well financed tort reform advocates and, especially, biased reporting in the mass news media.This project consists of conducting a content analysis of media framing of two case studies involving products liability-the McDonald's coffee lawsuit, and the two-decade legacy of lawsuits against the tobacco industry. Additionally, the project will identify common elements of products liability lawsuit coverage in the news over a twenty-year period as well as study how media-generated anecdotes, icons, and sources have figured into congressional debates about tort reform.This research contributes to the scholarly enterprise by systematically examining media coverage of product liability lawsuits. While the empirical focus is on new media coverage, the project's primary objective is to analyze the social production of practical legal knowledge. The working assumption is that the mass media generate a significant portion of public knowledge both of and about law in modern society. This knowledge in turn is highly likely to influence public opinion and political debates regarding the need for tort reform as well as routine legal practice. The research utilizes a general "framing" methodology. Analysis focuses on three specific dimensions of framing activity: 1) the imperative of "newsworthiness," which selects and presents news in ways that are personalized, morselized, dramatized, and normalized for cultural consumption; 2) the privileging of particular cultural norms emphasizing individual responsibility in the presentation of legal disputes; and 3) the selection of various types of authoritative data for story lines, including quotes by experts, anecdotes, and social science data. The research design tests for the influence and implications of these framing devices in the production of news stories about tort law practice. This research will enhance our understanding of contemporary debates over tort reform in the U.S. and contribute to socio-legal analysis regarding the production, reproduction, and transformation of law itself in contemporary society.

近年来，围绕产品责任诉讼以及美国侵权法体系的合理性和公正性展开了一场激烈的政治辩论。批评人士指责，在过去20年里，侵权索赔、原告胜诉和巨额惩罚性损害赔偿“暴涨”，给国家带来了巨大的经济和社会成本。许多社会科学家回应说，这些批评是建立在不具代表性的轶事和“恐怖故事”的基础上的，这些故事模糊了实际法律实践的模式和含义。学者们认为，侵权改革之所以具有明显的政治吸引力，主要原因是资金雄厚的侵权改革倡导者有效地操纵了修辞，尤其是大众新闻媒体的偏见报道。这个项目包括对涉及产品责任的两个案例的媒体框架进行内容分析——麦当劳咖啡诉讼和针对烟草业的20年遗产诉讼。此外，该项目将确定二十多年来新闻中产品责任诉讼报道的共同要素，并研究媒体产生的轶事，图标和来源如何被纳入国会关于侵权改革的辩论。本研究通过系统地考察媒体对产品责任诉讼的报道，为学术事业做出了贡献。虽然实证研究的重点是新媒体报道，但该项目的主要目标是分析实用法律知识的社会生产。工作假设是大众媒体产生了现代社会中关于法律和法律的公共知识的很大一部分。这种知识反过来又极有可能影响公众舆论和关于侵权改革必要性的政治辩论以及日常法律实践。该研究采用了一种通用的“框架”方法。分析的重点是框架活动的三个具体维度：1)“新闻价值”的必要性，它以个性化、碎片化、戏剧化和规范化的方式选择和呈现新闻，以供文化消费；2)在法律纠纷的呈现中强调个人责任的特定文化规范的特权；3)为故事线选择各种类型的权威数据，包括专家引用，轶事和社会科学数据。本研究设计测试这些框架装置在侵权法实务新闻故事制作中的影响与意涵。这项研究将增强我们对当代美国侵权改革辩论的理解，并有助于对当代社会中法律本身的生产、再生产和转型进行社会法律分析。