The Political Culture of Social Welfare Policy

Gamson, William A.; Lasch, Kathryn Eilene

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-657980-2.50032-2

Cited by 340 publications

(248 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…To study media discourse, Gamson and Modigliani trace the "careers" of various frames through analysis of news, political cartoons, elite pronouncements, and the like (e.g., Gamson and Lasch 1983;Modigliani 1987, 1989). For analysis of public opinion, they find conventional survey-questionnaire methods to be problematic.…”

Section: A Constructionist Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One line of research emphasizes a sociological conception of framing, applying it to the production of news discourse and conversations among focus-group participants. This research sets about the task of examining various media frames as they are applied to particular issues (e.g., Gamson and Lasch 1983;Modigliani 1987, 1989;Gitlin 1980;Pan and Kosicki 1993;Tuchman 1978). A second line of study emphasizes a psychological conception of framing and focuses on individual patterns of information processing and opinion formation.…”

Section: Framing Research: a Bifurcated Endeavormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Framing Public Discussion of Gay Civil Unions

Price

Nir

Cappella

2005

Public Opinion Quarterly

126

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Although the framing of public opinion has often been conceptualized as a collective and social process, experimental studies of framing have typically examined only individual, psychological responses to alternative message frames. In this research we employ for the first time group conversations as the unit of analysis (following Gamson 1992) in an experimental study of framing effects. Two hundred and thirty-five American citizens in 50 groups (17 homogeneously conservative groups, 15 homogeneously liberal groups, and 18 heterogeneous groups) discussed whether or not gay and lesbian partnerships should be legally recognized. Groups were randomly assigned to one of two framing conditions (a "homosexual marriage/ special rights" frame or a "civil union/equal rights" frame). Results indicated framing effects that were, in all cases, contingent on the ideological leanings of the group. The "marriage" frame tended to polarize group discussions along ideological lines. Both liberal and conservative groups appeared to find their opponents' frame more provocative, responding to them with a larger number of statements and expressing greater ambivalence than when reacting to more hospitable frames.

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Section: A Constructionist Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Framing Research: a Bifurcated Endeavormentioning

confidence: 99%

Framing Public Discussion of Gay Civil Unions

Price

Nir

Cappella

2005

Public Opinion Quarterly

126

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…From this perspective, texts form a scene of continuous struggle for the 'right' concepts, meanings and definitions, and are a part of the political and economic power machinery, but simultaneously also a part of their users' meaning production (Fairclough, 1992;Gamson and Lasch, 1983). We chose the biggest quality daily in Finland, Helsingin Sanomat (hereafter HS), as the source of empirical data for our research.…”

Section: Data Collection and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Nature of Stakeholder Relationships: An Empirical Examination of a Conflict Situation

2012

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“…However, other scholars argue that white attitudes are driven more by symbolic racism or racial resentment by which whites express their negative views of African Americans through belief that they do not live up to values such as a strong work ethnic, thereby concealing an overtly racist view which is socially unacceptable (Kinder and Sanders 1996;Kinder and Sears 1981;McConohay 1986). As part of their research, Kinder and Sanders examined the effect of different questions, which contain policy frames commonly encountered in the mass media (Gamson and Lasch 1983;Gamson and Modigliani 1987), have on policy attitudes. They found that the respondents gave greater weight to racial resentment in determining their policy preferences for government assistance to blacks and affirmative action when they received the reverse discrimination framed question (Kinder and Sanders,Ch.…”

Section: The Racial Gapmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, numerous studies of the mass media provide evidence that it often relies upon, and reinforces stereotypes and group frames to shape the news (Dixon and Linz 2002;Dixon and Linz 2000;Gamson and Lasch 1983;Modigliani 1987, 1989;Mendelberg 1997). While I use these studies to inform my understanding of dominant versus less powerful groups, the role of groups in policy debates and the important role of primes, my research seeks to explore psychological processes by which feelings about groups, especially one's own group, can affect change in individual support or opposition for a policy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Negative Group Primes

McSween¹

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My paper examines the effects of negative group primes on policy preferences.My primary hypothesis states that negative group primes will have an effect not only on the policy preferences of respondents who receive the primes about a group in which they are not a member (out-group), but they will also be affected by negative primes about their own group (in-group). For members of the more powerful groups, the negative out group primes are very likely to have an effect on policy preferences in ways that widen gaps in public opinion. However, negative in-group primes are unlikely to have an effect on their political attitudes. For members of the less powerful groups, the inverse will be the case as they resist these negative primes by supporting policies linked to their groups with greater furor.To test these hypotheses, I have conducted experiments on three sets of groupmale and female, Caucasian and African American, mainline and fundamentalist Protestant. These groups were selected for two reasons. First, there is compelling evidence in literature of political behavior of gaps in policy preferences. Second, they represent groups with impermeable and permeable membership boundaries.The results suggest that negative out-group primes affect the attitudes of members of the more powerful. However, the effects differ across groups, sometimes in unexpected ways. For whites, the negative African-American primes increased their support for social welfare spending and racial policies. For mainline Protestants, the negative fundamentalist primes decreased their support for social welfare spending and spending for the environment but more supportive of school vouchers and equal roles for women. With all but one exception, these results run counter to my hypotheses. While the negative out-group primes affect whites and mainline Protestants in similar ways, it is unlikely that the cause is the same. In the case of gender, negative female primes decrease support for programs such as social welfare programs per my hypotheses. It is clear from the results that group members interact and conflict in the political realm in very different ways. The results for members of less powerful groups are less clear.

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The Political Culture of Social Welfare Policy

Cited by 340 publications

References 3 publications

Framing Public Discussion of Gay Civil Unions

Framing Public Discussion of Gay Civil Unions

Understanding the Nature of Stakeholder Relationships: An Empirical Examination of a Conflict Situation

The Effects of Negative Group Primes

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