"Moral Referendums": Values, News Media, and the Process of Candidate Choice

Domke, David; Shah, Dhavan V.; Wackman, Daniel B.

doi:10.1080/105846098198911

Cited by 50 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…There is some evidence regarding the power of moral rhetoric in the electoral realm (e.g., Domke, Shah, & Wackman, 1998;Marrietta, 2009), but extant work has taken an undifferentiated view of moral language, overlooking variation in the types of moral frames as well as the differential impact moral language has on particular subsets of the mass public.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Moral Concerns and Policy Attitudes: Investigating the Influence of Elite Rhetoric

Clifford¹,

Jerit

Rainey

et al. 2015

Political Communication

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A growing body of research documents the crucial role played by moral concerns in the formation of attitudes and a wide range of political behaviors. Yet extant models of moral judgment portray a direct linkage between moral intuitions and policy attitudes, leaving little room for the influence of political context. In this article, we argue that political rhetoric plays an important role in facilitating the connection between moral intuitions and political attitudes. Using a unique combination of media content analysis of the stem cell debate and individual-level measures of the public's moral foundations, we examine the role of rhetoric in linking a person's moral foundations to his or her attitudes. Our results show that individuals who are the most likely to have been exposed to political rhetoric have the strongest connection between their moral foundations and their attitudes on the issue. We also find that rhetoric was persuasive on this moralized issue and present suggestive evidence that it was most persuasive among those who endorsed the relevant moral foundation.

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Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Moral Concerns and Policy Attitudes: Investigating the Influence of Elite Rhetoric

Clifford¹,

Jerit

Rainey

et al. 2015

Political Communication

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“…Experimental studies demonstrate that individuals' social, cultural, or political values (e.g., egalitarianism, individualism, justice beliefs) moderate the effects of messages on attitudes and opinions (Brewer & Gross, 2005;Domke, Shah, & Wackman, 1998;Kahan, JenkinsSmith, & Braman, 2011;Lucas, Alexander, Firestone, & Lebreton, 2009;Nelson & Garst, 2005;Shen & Edwards, 2005).…”

Section: Background On Values In Communicationmentioning

confidence: 98%

Understanding Public Resistance to Messages About Health Disparities

Gollust

Cappella

2014

Journal of Health Communication

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Advocates and policymakers strategically communicate about health disparities in an effort to raise public awareness, often by emphasizing the social and economic factors that influence these disparities. Previous research suggests that predisposing political orientation and values related to self-reliance and personal responsibility may produce resistance to such messages. In this study, the authors culled 4 messages about the causes of disparities in life expectancy from public discourse and randomly presented them to a nationally representative sample of 732 Americans. Three indicators of message resistance were measured: belief that messages are weak, elicitation of anger, and production of counterarguments. Expected political differences in message resistance were identified, with Republicans perceiving messages to be weaker, arousing less anger, and eliciting more counterarguing than for Democrats. Among 3 messages that described the social determinants of health disparities, a message that identified the role of personal choices (explicitly acknowledging personal responsibility) produced the least anger and counterarguing among Republicans. Political differences in anger arousal and counterarguing can be explained, in part, by predisposing values toward personal responsibility. These findings have relevance for policy advocates seeking to bridge public divides surrounding health disparities and for scholars advancing theories of reactance to policy-relevant health messaging.

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“…Discriminatory decisions should be ruled out. This pattern of arguments was a mixture of material and value framing in the terminology of previous studies (Domke et al, 1998;Shah et al, 1996). It was material in nature because it simply argued that democratic naturalizations did not conform to the rule of law and, therefore, could not be implemented.…”

Section: Context Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This kind of strategic communication has also been termed value framing (Ball-Rokeach et al, 1990;Chong & Druckman, 2007b;Shah et al, 1996). Value frames involve linking value positions to the construction of political debates to provide a compelling interpretative framework that facilitates the understanding of a given policy conflict (Ball-Rokeach et al, 1990;Domke, Shah, & Wackman, 1998). Typically, value frames depict debates about public policy issues as clashes of deep-rooted values.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experimental studies suggest that associating political positions to basic values activates value orientations, which in turn serve as easily accessible heuristics shaping people's interpretations and judgments of political issues (Domke et al, 1998;Shah et al, 1996;Shen & Edwards, 2005). Based on this activation-accessibility explanation, most studies have shown that framing an issue in terms of values can enhance the accessibility of this value position, thereby affecting the judgments about gay rights (Brewer, 2003), immigration (Domke et al, 1999), attitudes toward welfare policy (Shen & Edwards, 2005), or candidate decision making (Shah et al, 1996).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Value Resonance and Value Framing Effects on Voting Intentions in Direct-Democratic Campaigns

Schemer

Wirth

Matthes

2011

American Behavioral Scientist

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This study offers insights into how news media frames interact with existing value orientations in shaping voter preferences. It is assumed that a framing effect should be more pronounced when frames in the news resonate with people's existing value predispositions. These assumptions were tested in a real-world setting of a political campaign dealing with the issue of naturalization of immigrants. Based on a data set in which the data of a two-wave panel survey were matched with content analytic data, the present research demonstrated frame-resonance effects for news reporting about the pro campaign. That is, framing the issue in terms of the notion that people should have the final say in naturalization procedures shaped voting preferences only for voters whose basic values of social order, tradition, and security (high authoritarians) were touched. In contrast, a main effect of the opponents' framing in the news on voting preferences was found. Thus, the majority followed the framing of the opponents who put emphasis on a fair and pragmatic solution of the naturalization issue. AbstractThis study offers insights into how news media frames interact with existing value orientations in shaping voter preferences. It is assumed that a framing effect should be more pronounced when frames in the news resonate with people's existing value predispositions. These assumptions were tested in a real-world setting of a political campaign dealing with the issue of naturalization of immigrants. Based on a data set in which the data of a two-wave panel survey were matched with content analytic data, the present research demonstrated frame-resonance effects for news reporting about the pro campaign. That is, framing the issue in terms of the notion that people should have the final say in naturalization procedures shaped voting preferences only for voters whose basic values of social order, tradition, and security (high authoritarians) were touched. In contrast, a main effect of the opponents' framing in the news on voting preferences was found. Thus, the majority followed the framing of the opponents who put emphasis on a fair and pragmatic solution of the naturalization issue.

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"Moral Referendums": Values, News Media, and the Process of Candidate Choice

Cited by 50 publications

References 43 publications

Moral Concerns and Policy Attitudes: Investigating the Influence of Elite Rhetoric

Moral Concerns and Policy Attitudes: Investigating the Influence of Elite Rhetoric

Understanding Public Resistance to Messages About Health Disparities

Value Resonance and Value Framing Effects on Voting Intentions in Direct-Democratic Campaigns

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