Public Opinion and Media Coverage During the Iraq War: An Examination of Media Framing and Priming

Abstract

Media frames are vital to peoples' understanding of issues and events, but this study's findings highlight the importance of internal frames, or primary frameworks, in shaping public opinion. A rally 'round the flag effect did occur at the outset of the Iraq War, which caused Republicans, Democrats and Independents to support the war. Both party affiliation and news attentiveness explained a significant amount of variability in a person's opinion of the war in 2003. The party affiliation framework is much more vital in determining support for the war when media content is negative. Viewers support media frames that reflect their belief system, and this explains why in 2004 Republicans were supportive of the war yet Democrats and Independents were not.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA431241

Entities

People

  • Khalid J. Cannon

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Cognition
  • Data Analysis
  • Information Processing
  • International Relations
  • Iraqi-War
  • Man Borne Improvised Explosive Devices
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Science
  • Prisoners Of War
  • Psychology
  • Public Opinion
  • Regression Analysis
  • Social Sciences
  • United States
  • War
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.