Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Agenda Setting and Issue Framing Dynamics on Front Page News

本论文项目旨在研究《纽约时报》头版新闻中的议程设置和议题框架动态。共同和平倡议提出了一种新的问题框架动力学理论，并设计了一种测试平行假设的设计，即问题框架和议程设置都遵循不成比例的信息处理(DIP)模式，通过这种模式，这些过程应该表现出较长时间的相对停滞，其间穿插着戏剧性的变化时刻。研究人员将测试假设并创建两个原始数据集，第一个数据集显示随着时间的推移，纽约时报头版上不同问题的兴衰，第二个数据集显示每个问题辩论中不同框架的兴衰。在创建这些数据集时，她将改进文本分析的创新方法，借鉴Laver，Benoit和Garry(2003)和Simon和Xenos(2004)的经验，并将其应用于她对议程设置和随着时间推移的问题框架的多问题研究。从1960年到2002年，她将每隔十天查看一次《纽约时报》的头版(N=1,532)，按政策问题对每篇文章进行编码。她将使用产生的11,000篇文章的问题数据库集来测试议程设置的DIP假设。然后，她将使用词频分析来生成框架数据集，并测试她的理论，即问题框架也受DIP支配。她还将利用因素分析，对每一次问题辩论中不断变化的框架作出实质性解释。在这项提案中，她提供了这些方法的试点研究的证据，以验证她的方法。该项目的一个主要贡献在于，它对我们理解议程设置和问题框架作出了理论和方法上的贡献，这两个过程都是限制和塑造注意力的强有力的政治进程。在议程设置和问题制定方面作出正确的改变，可以激励或抑制政治参与，为战争行为辩护或指责，或使偏见合法化或消除偏见。研究人员对议程设置和议题发布动态的考察将促进我们对这些影响机制的了解。这些数据将提供对政治制度的洞察，除了有助于学术研究外，还将让普通公众更切实地了解媒体如何关注某些关切和观点，而另一些则不受关注。这些知识将对许多公民联盟和少数利益集团特别有利。

This dissertation project seeks funding to examine agenda-setting and issue-framing dynamics in NYT front-page news. The co-PI offers a new theory of issue-framing dynamics and a design to test parallel hypotheses that both issue-framing and agenda-setting follow a pattern of disproportionate information processing (DIP), by which these processes should exhibit long periods of relative stasis punctuated by dramatic moments of change. The researcher will test hypotheses and create two original datasets, the first showing the rise and fall of different issues on the NYT front page over time, the second showing the rise and fall of different frames within each issue debate. In creating these datasets, she will refine innovative methods of textual analysis and borrow from Laver, Benoit, and Garry (2003) and Simon and Xenos (2004) and apply to her multi-issue study of agenda-setting and issue-framing over time. She will examine the NYT front page of every tenth day from 1960 through 2002 (N=1,532), coding each article by policy issue. She will use the resulting Issues Dataset of 11,000 articles to test the DIP hypothesis of agenda-setting. She will then employ word-frequency analysis to produce a Frames Dataset and test her theory that issue-framing is also governed by DIP. She will also use factor analysis to extract substantive interpretations of the changing frames within each issue debate. In this proposal, she offers evidence from a pilot study of these methods to validate her approach. One main contribution of the project lies in the theoretical and methodologicalcontributions it makes to our understanding of agenda-setting and issue-framing, both of which are powerful political processes that limit and shape attention. The right changes in agenda setting and issue-framing can serve to inspire or inhibit political participation, justify or impugn acts of war, or legitimize or dismantle prejudices. The researchers examination of agenda-setting and issueframing dynamics will advance our knowledge of these mechanisms of influence. The data will offer insight into the political system that, beyond aiding academic research, will provide the general public with a more tangible understanding of how some concerns and viewpoints are paid media attention, while others are not. Such knowledge will be beneficial to many citizen coalitions and minority interest groups in particular.