Reframing Public Opinion as We Have Known It

Entman, Robert M.; Herbst, Susan

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511613852.011

Cited by 68 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…Nonetheless, periodically an issue manages to capture our collective attention, leading us to view it as a pressing social problem. When a problem becomes salient to the public at large, individuals attempt to make sense of it through cues from a variety of sources, including media depictions, framing by politicians, and—for social concerns that touch our daily lives—personal experience or information gleaned from social networks (Entman and Herbst 2001; Gamson 1992). Prior work suggests that political ideology (Jacoby 1991) and political party affiliation (Koch 1998; Rein and Schon 1994) are instrumental in shaping citizens' views of the appropriateness of policy responses to social problems.…”

Section: Reasoning By Metaphormentioning

confidence: 99%

Obesity Metaphors: How Beliefs about the Causes of Obesity Affect Support for Public Policy

et al. 2009

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Context:Relatively little is known about the factors shaping public attitudes toward obesity as a policy concern. This study examines whether individuals' beliefs about the causes of obesity affect their support for policies aimed at stemming obesity rates. This article identifies a unique role of metaphor-based beliefs, as distinct from conventional political attitudes, in explaining support for obesity policies.Methods: This article used the Yale Rudd Center Public Opinion on Obesity Survey, a nationally representative web sample surveyed from the Knowledge Networks panel in 2006/07 (N = 1,009). The study examines how respondents' demographic and health characteristics, political attitudes, and agreement with seven obesity metaphors affect support for sixteen policies to reduce obesity rates. Findings:Including obesity metaphors in regression models helps explain public support for policies to curb obesity beyond levels attributable solely to demographic, health, and political characteristics. The metaphors that people use to understand rising obesity rates are strong predictors of support for public policy, and their influence varies across different types of policy interventions. Conclusions:Over the last five years, the United States has begun to grapple with the implications of dramatically escalating rates of obesity. Individuals use metaphors to better understand increasing rates of obesity, and obesity metaphors are independent and powerful predictors of support for public

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Section: Reasoning By Metaphormentioning

confidence: 99%

Obesity Metaphors: How Beliefs about the Causes of Obesity Affect Support for Public Policy

et al. 2009

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“…Scholars have speculated about the divisive consequences of media proliferation, but few have tested them (Rahn & Rudolph, 2001). The fear is that people will find it increasingly difficult to agree on common political agendas and that norms of tolerance that are so crucial in democracies may weaken (Dahlgren, 2001;Entman & Herbst, 2001;Sparks, 2001;Sunstein, 2001). The lack of interest in studies of political socialization is also surprising because the demise of the Soviet empire raised many questions about the type of mass information needed to resocialize adults as well as children to function within democratic regimes.…”

Section: Choice Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Communication Faces the 21st Century

Graber

Smith

2005

Journal of Communication

108

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“…In essence, media reports are forms of communication that inform people's knowledge and perceptions, and thereby can also inform their actions and reactions. As an issue emerges and then becomes widely viewed as a significant health problem, individuals rely on media depictions, political filters and personal experiences to gather and synthesize information (Entman and Herbst 2001). Explanations provided by professionals and institutions tend to be prominent in media coverage of health issues, and may be cited authoritatively or criticized.…”

Section: Health News Animal-human Interest Stories and Active Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Owning the Problem: Media Portrayals of Overweight Dogs and the Shared Determinants of the Health of Human and Companion Animal Populations

Degeling

Rock

2012

Anthrozoös

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Weight-related health problems have become a common topic in Western mass media. News-coverage has also extended to overweight pets, particularly since 2003 when the U.S. National Academy of Sciences announced that obesity was also afflicting co-habiting companion animals in record numbers. To characterize and track views in popular circulation on causes, consequences and responsibilities vis-à-vis weight gain and obesity, in pets as well as in people, this study examines portrayals of overweight dogs that appeared from 2000 through 2009 in British, American and Australian mass media. The ethnographic content analysis drew inspiration from the literature in population health, animal-human relationships, communication framing and the active nature of texts in cosmopolitan societies. Three main types of media articles about overweight dogs appeared during this period: 1) reports emphasizing facts and figures; 2) stories emphasizing personal prescriptions for dog owners, and 3) societal critiques. To help ordinary people make sense of canine obesity, media articles often highlight that dogs share the lifestyle of their human companion or owner, yet the implications of shared social and physical environments is rarely considered when it comes to solutions. Instead, media coverage exhorts people who share their lives with overweight dogs to 'own the problem' and, with resolve, to normalize their dog's physical condition by imposing dietary, exercise and relationship changes, thereby individualizing culpability rather than linking it to broader systemic issues. . And yet recent expressions of concern among researchers and in the media about the health effects of excess weight have not been confined to human populations, but also the increasing incidence of obesity amongst our co-habiting companion animals. In 2003, a committee of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences reported that one in four dogs and cats worldwide were overweight (National Research Council 2003), which helped to lend a pet angle to global media coverage of weight gain and obesity. Armed with this report and related findings (McGreevy, et al. 2005;Lund, Armstrong, Kirk and Klausner 2006), veterinary opinion leaders and animal welfare advocates have managed to harness media interest in obesity-in concert with their enduring fascination with matters animal-thus raising the public profile of an emerging pet health issue. This paper addresses the mass media's role in connecting weight gain in dogs with human activity and social organization. Following on from studies of the influence of comparative metaphors and analogies on lay-people's perceptions of human obesity (Barry, et al. 2009), its is likely that media portrayals of overweight pets have the potential to have an effect on the general public's understanding of and engagement with the determinants of health -in canine as well as in human populations. Pets and people -shared lives, shared environments, shared health concernsPet animals occupy an important place in many Western societies (Fr...

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Reframing Public Opinion as We Have Known It

Cited by 68 publications

References 0 publications

Obesity Metaphors: How Beliefs about the Causes of Obesity Affect Support for Public Policy

Obesity Metaphors: How Beliefs about the Causes of Obesity Affect Support for Public Policy

Political Communication Faces the 21st Century

Owning the Problem: Media Portrayals of Overweight Dogs and the Shared Determinants of the Health of Human and Companion Animal Populations

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