ABSTRACT

Despite several transient spikes in response to the deadliest mass shootings, the U.S. population continues to perceive gun violence as less important than other issues, and public opinion remains divided along partisan lines. Drawing upon literature of compelling arguments and partisan media, this study investigates what kind of news framing—episodic framing that focuses on individual stories or thematic framing that emphasizes broader context—makes gun violence a more or less prominent issue. Specifically, this study uses the state-of-the-art machine-learning model BERT to examine 25 news media outlets’ coverage of gun violence, and then pairs the results with a two-wave panel survey conducted during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Results demonstrate that episodic framing of gun violence in the elite, mainstream media increased the issue salience among conservatives. However, exposure to episodically framed coverage of gun violence in like-minded partisan media made conservatives believe the issue was less important.

摘要

尽管针对最致命的大规模枪击事件出现了几次短暂的高峰，但美国民众仍然认为枪支暴力不如其他问题重要，公众舆论仍然存在党派分歧。本研究利用令人信服的论点和党派媒体的文献，调查了什么样的新闻框架——侧重于个人故事的情节框架或强调更广泛背景的主题框架——使枪支暴力成为或多或少的突出问题。具体而言，本研究使用最先进的机器学习模型 BERT 来检查 25 家新闻媒体对枪支暴力的报道，然后将结果与 2018 年美国中期选举期间进行的两波小组调查配对。结果表明，精英中枪支暴力的情节框架，主流媒体在保守派中增加了问题的显着性。然而，在志同道合的党派媒体中，对枪支暴力的插曲式报道使保守派认为这个问题不那么重要。