The Jeremiad Over Journalism

―The Agenda-Setting Function of the Mass Media,‖ for example prompted a host of studies that
attempted to substantiate or dispel the assertion that, there was a strong relationship between
campaign issues and "the judgments of voters as to the salience and importance of various
campaign topics." 222
McCombs and Shaw‘s results were subsequently supported by Shanto Iyengar, Mark Peters and
Donald Kinder in the article "Experimental Demonstrations of the 'Not-So-Minimal' Consequences
of Television News Programs." Iyengar et al. incorporated the concept of priming in their analysis
and concluded that,
"We have shown that by ignoring some problems and attending to others, television news
programs profoundly affect which problems viewers take seriously. (…) We have also
discovered another pathway to media influence: priming. Problems prominently positioned in
television broadcasts loom large in evaluations of presidential performance. 223 "
However, before one can start to research framing effects, a clear understanding of frame analysis
must be arrived at.
2.5.1 Framing Content
In his 1974 massive introductory study of framing, sociologist Erving Goffman distinguished
between natural and social frameworks. Where natural frameworks, according to Goffman, are
characterized by larger-than-life forces which can be observed elegantly in the ―physical and
221
Claes H. de Vreese, "News Framing: Theory and Typology," Information Design Journal + Document Design 13,
no. 1 (2005). Page 52. See also Robert M. Entman, "Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm," Journal
of Communication 43, no. 4 (1993). As well as Claes de Vreese and Hajo Boomgaarden, "Valenced News Frames and
Public Support for the EU," Communications 28 (2003). Or Dietram A. Scheufele, "Framing as a Theory of Media
Effects," Journal of Communication 49, no. 1 (1999).
222
Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L. Shaw, "The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media," Public Opinion
Quarterly 36, no. 2 (1972). Page 182.
223
Shanto Iyengar, Mark D. Peters, and Donald R. Kinder, "Experimental Demonstrations of the 'Not-So-Minimal'
Consequences of Television News Programs," American Political Science Review 74 (1982). Page 854-855.
65