Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

4924

Date

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Journalism

Committee Chair

Jin Yang

Committee Member

Thomas Hrach

Committee Member

Melissa Janoske

Abstract

The unique candidacy of Donald Trump provided an opportunity to study how he talked about issues, specifically the issues of immigration and jobs from a framing and tone persepctive. Such a perspective can provide insight as to how audiences perceive these issues. Specifically, this project examined the kind of framing Trump used in his comments on immigration and jobs:episodic or thematic, as well as the kinds of tone used in his comments:positive, negative, or neutral. A sample of 118 news articles from the Los Angeles Times, TheNew York Times, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Washington Post found that on immigration, Trump used episodic framing less often than non-episodic framing, and used thematic framing more often than non-thematic framing. His comments on immigration were more often negative than positive or neutral. There is no difference in his usage of episodic frames from non-episodic frames for jobs, but he did use thematic framing more often than non-thematic framing. His comments on jobs were more often negative than positive or neutral. This study concludes that Trump talked about immigration and jobs in grand and lofty terms short of details, and the negative tone dominates all his comments.His bleak view of the two most important issues in American politics might be the most extreme in history.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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