Doctoral Dissertation Research: Media, Social Context and Public Discourse

博士论文研究：媒体、社会背景和公共话语

• 批准号: 0828479
• 负责人: Pamela Oliver
• 金额: $ 0.75万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-15 至 2009-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0828479&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Media; Social

Pamela E. Oliver (PI), Peter K. Brinson (Co-PI)Institution: University of Wisconsin, MadisonTitle: Doctoral Dissertation Research: Media, Social Context, and Public Discourse0828479AbstractThis research project will examine the process by which different groups of people draw from their cognitive beliefs, attitudes, feelings, and moral values to develop specific opinions about same-sex marriage and civil unions. Data will be gathered through focus group interviews of people living in the American Midwest to analyze how people talk about, conceive, and understand same-sex marriage and unions. One goal is to examine how people mobilize cultural understandings as they construct opinions about contentious issues. This project uses the case of same-sex marriage and civil unions to examine both how people are constrained by the ?structure? of culture, and how people use culture ?pragmatically? in order to make sense of the debate. Focus group participants will be drawn from a variety of already-existing groups in civil society to ensure a diversity of perspectives between groups. The transcripts of the focus group discussion will be coded and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. One level of analysis will identify the discursive similarities and differences among group discussions, including the group dynamics, cultural attitudes and beliefs, frames, points of agreement and disagreement, and argumentative logics and resources. A second level of analysis will relate discursive similarities and differences to differences between groups. Special attention will be given to differences among the ideological and social context of interaction in each group, including discursive differences between the younger and older generations and those between the groups in civil society from which focus groups are drawn (e.g. recreational, religious). The results of this study will be publicized and disseminated broadly in order to shed light on politics of same-sex unions, and provide a greater depth of knowledge about where people?s attitudes about same-sex unions. This dissertation research will contribute both to the specific debate about legalizing same-sex relationships and to the more general understanding of the relationship between political discourse and democracy. More broadly, this research will be relevant to debates about the tenor of political discourse in the United States: whether political discourse today is too extreme or too tepid, whether ideological differences reflect irreconcilable ?culture wars,? or whether the political system artificially constrains the terms of political debate to the ideological ?middle.? Finally, this study will contribute to this debate by examining how people in different social contexts talk about one controversial issue in both similar and different ways?how culture both facilitates and constrains public discourse.

Pamela E. Oliver (PI), Peter K. Brinson （Co-PI）机构：威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校标题：博士论文研究：媒体、社会背景和公共话语0828479摘要本研究项目将考察不同人群从他们的认知信仰、态度、情感和道德价值观中得出对同性婚姻和民事结合的具体看法的过程。数据将通过对生活在美国中西部的人们进行焦点小组访谈来收集，以分析人们如何谈论、构思和理解同性婚姻和结合。一个目标是研究人们在对有争议的问题构建观点时如何调动文化理解。本项目以同性婚姻和民事结合为例，考察人们是如何受到婚姻结构的约束的。文化，以及人们如何实用地使用文化？为了让辩论有意义。焦点小组的参与者将从民间社会已有的各种群体中选出，以确保群体之间的观点多样化。焦点小组讨论的文字记录将被编码并进行定性和定量分析。一个层次的分析将确定小组讨论中的话语异同，包括小组动态，文化态度和信仰，框架，同意和不同意的点，以及论证逻辑和资源。第二层次的分析将把话语的异同与群体之间的差异联系起来。将特别注意每个群体中相互作用的意识形态和社会背景之间的差异，包括年轻一代和老一代之间的话语差异以及民间社会中各群体之间的话语差异（例如，娱乐，宗教）。这项研究的结果将被广泛宣传和传播，以阐明同性婚姻的政治，并提供更深入的了解人们在哪里？美国对同性婚姻的态度。本论文的研究将有助于同性关系合法化的具体辩论，以及对政治话语与民主之间关系的更普遍理解。更广泛地说，这项研究将与关于美国政治话语基调的辩论有关：今天的政治话语是否过于极端或过于温和，意识形态差异是否反映了不可调和？文化战争,?还是政治制度人为地将政治辩论的条件限制在意识形态的中间？最后，这项研究将通过研究不同社会背景下的人们如何以相似和不同的方式谈论一个有争议的问题，从而为这场辩论做出贡献。文化如何促进和限制公共话语。