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Media Support for Social Welfare Programs:
The View from the Opinion Pages of the Elite Press
Fay
Lomax Cook and Gretchen Caspary
Abstract
This paper examines the framing of social welfare programs in the
opinion pages of two major elite newspapers that research shows
are widely read by U.S. policymakers. In particular, it focuses
on level of attention (salience) and level of support. The data
consist of all editorials, op-ed columns, and letters to the editor
dealing substantively with social welfare programs or issues that
appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post from January
1, 1990, through December 31, 1995 (N=1,824). Results from reading
and coding of each article show that the salience of social welfare
programs as a whole remained stable over the period studied but
that the salience of individual programs changed markedly from year
to year, primarily in response to political events. From 1990 through
1994, support was strongly positive, with the majority of editorial,
op-ed columns and letters to the editor calling for increases in
spending on benefits. In 1995, fewer articles called for increases
in social welfare programs, and more advocated either decreases
to or maintenance in program scope and spending. This change was
found to be primarily a defensive response to social welfare program
cuts proposed by the Republicans' Contract With America. Thus, overall,
we conclude that in the six years studied, the opinion pages of
the New York Times and the Washington Post were highly supportive
of American social welfare programs. The task that awaits future
research is an examination of the influence, if any, that this framing
of social welfare programs had on the opinions and actions of policymakers,
government bureaucrats, and the general public.
Fay Lomax Cook,
School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University Gretchen Caspary, School of
Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
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