Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

247

Date

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Journalism

Committee Chair

Joseph Raymond Hayden

Committee Member

Lurene Cachola Kelley

Committee Member

Elinor A. Grusin

Abstract

Small and sometimes significant differences were found in how newspapers with different levels of minority employment reported on the 2009 nomination and confirmation of the nation's first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor. This study used an agenda-setting and framing analysis to measure how mid-sized daily newspapers with high and low levels of minority employment reported on the topic. Newspapers with high levels of minority employment published more stories about Sotomayor and allotted a larger news hole to the topic, but neither difference achieved statistical significance. There were statistically significant differences in the frames used to report on Sotomayor, however. Newspapers with high levels of minority employment used more issue frames in their articles, while newspapers with low levels of minority employment incorporated more strategy and conflict frames. These results offer limited support for the assumption that minority employment levels at newspapers have a direct impact on content.

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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