Showing papers in "Journal of Communication in 2000"
TL;DR: The authors investigated the prevalence of five news frames identified in earlier studies on framing and framing effects: attribution of responsibility, conflict, human interest, economic consequences, and morality, and found that the use of news frames depended on both the type of outlet and the topic most significant differences were not between media (television vs the press) but between sensationalist vs serious types of news outlets.
Abstract: We investigated the prevalence of 5 news frames identified in earlier studies on framing and framing effects: attribution of responsibility, conflict, human interest, economic consequences, and morality We content analyzed 2,601 newspaper stories and 1,522 television news stories in the period surrounding the Amsterdam meetings of European heads of state in 1997 Our results showed that, overall, the attribution of responsibility frame was most commonly used in the news, followed by the conflict, economic consequences, human interest, and morality frames, respectively The use of news frames depended on both the type of outlet and the type of topic Most significant differences were not between media (television vs the press) but between sensationalist vs serious types of news outlets Sober and serious newspapers and television news programs more often used the responsibility and conflict frames in the presentation of news, whereas sensationalist outlets more often used the human interest frame
2,006 citations
TL;DR: An information-processing model that is directly applicable to the investigation of how mediated messages are processed is applied to the case of television viewing to demonstrate its applicability and provides a measure for each part of the model.
Abstract: This paper presents an information-processing model that is directly applicable to the investigation of how mediated messages are processed. It applies the model to the case of television viewing to demonstrate its applicability. It provides a measure for each part of the model. It presents evidence that supports the model in the television-viewing situation. Finally, it demonstrates how the model may be used to further research and understanding in well-known theoretical traditions. This model is not meant to stand in opposition to any of these theories but, rather, should work well with them by providing hypothesized mechanisms that may underlie well-known effects. This model should prove useful both to researchers and, eventually, to message producers. To the extent that we can better understand how the content and structure of messages interact with a viewer's information-processing system to determine which parts and how much of a communication message is remembered, we will make great strides in understanding how people communicate.
1,630 citations
TL;DR: This article conducted a content analysis of a random sample of local television news programming in Los Angeles and Orange counties to assess representations of Blacks, Latinos, and Whites as lawbreakers and law defenders.
Abstract: We conducted a content analysis of a random sample of local television news programming in Los Angeles and Orange counties to assess representations of Blacks, Latinos, and Whites as lawbreakers and law defenders. ‘Intergroup’ comparisons of perpetrators (Black and Latino vs. White) revealed that Blacks and Latinos are significantly more likely than Whites to be portrayed as lawbreakers on television news. ‘Interrole’ comparisons (lawbreakers vs. law defenders) revealed that Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be portrayed as lawbreakers than as defenders, whereas Whites are significantly more likely to be portrayed as defenders than as lawbreakers. ‘Interreality’ comparisons of lawbreakers (television news vs. crime reports from the California Department of Justice) revealed that Blacks are overrepresented as lawbreakers, and Latinos and Whites are underrepresented as lawbreakers on television news compared to their respective crime rates obtained from the California Department of Justice for Los Angeles and Orange counties. Interreality comparisons of law defenders (television news vs. county employment records) revealed that Whites are overrepresented, Latinos are underrepresented, and Blacks are neither over- nor underrepresented as police officers on television news compared to employment reports. We speculate on the psychological effects of exposure to these intergroup, interrole, and interreality differentials on television news viewers.
569 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that most political campaigns are resistant to using human-interactive features and argue that more democratizing components of the medium, human interaction, are avoided in favor of media interaction because of the potential for a loss of control and ambiguity of campaign communication.
Abstract: The Internet has properties that make possible increased interaction between citizens and political leaders. Interviews of campaign staff and analysis of U.S. candidate websites in 1996 and 1998, however, indicate that most political campaigns are resistant to using human-interactive features. I conceptualize interaction, offering that there are two kinds: human interaction and media interaction. More democratizing components of the medium, human interaction, are avoided in favor of media interaction because of the potential for a loss of control and ambiguity of campaign communication.
474 citations
TL;DR: A meta-analysis of studies of television network news showed small, measurable, but probably insubstantial coverage and statement biases as mentioned in this paper, and no significant biases were found for the newspaper industry.
Abstract: A meta-analysis considered 59 quantitative studies containing data concerned with partisan media bias in presidential election campaigns since 1948. Types of bias considered were gatekeeping bias, which is the preference for selecting stories from one party or the other; coverage bias, which considers the relative amounts of coverage each party receives; and statement bias, which focuses on the favorability of coverage toward one party or the other. On the whole, no significant biases were found for the newspaper industry. Biases in newsmagazines were virtually zero as well. However, meta-analysis of studies of television network news showed small, measurable, but probably insubstantial coverage and statement biases.
442 citations
TL;DR: The study concludes that the prediction framework of international news coverage has probably altered in the post-Cold War epoch and, therefore, that the relevant problems need to be revisited.
Abstract: This study investigates the influence of systemic determinants on international news coverage in 38 countries. Systemic factors include traits of nations, magnitude of interaction and relatedness between nations, and logistics of news gathering. Multiple regression is implemented to assess 9 systemic determinants in each individual country. Findings indicate that the U.S. was the most covered country in the world. In spite of some variation, trade volume and presence of international news agencies were found to be the 2 primary predictors of the amount of news coverage. The study concludes that the prediction framework of international news coverage has probably altered in the post-Cold War epoch and, therefore, that the relevant problems need to be revisited.
384 citations
TL;DR: For example, the authors found that exposure to fat-character television, thin-ideal magazines, and sports magazines predicted eating-disorder symptomatology for females, especially older females.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to replicate survey research demonstrating a correlation between adults' thin-ideal media exposure and eating disorders (Harrison & Cantor, 1997) with a sample of 366 adolescents. Measures included interest in body-improvement media content, exposure to thin-ideal television and magazines, exposure to fat-character television, exposure to sports magazines, and eating-disorder symptomatology. Exposure to fat-character television, thin-ideal magazines, and sports magazines predicted eating-disorder symptomatology for females, especially older females. Exposure to fat-character television also predicted body dissatisfaction for younger males. Relationships remained significant when selective exposure based on interest in body-management content was controlled. Discussion centers on the importance of age and sex in moderating the effects of exposure to thin-ideal media on eating disorders.
362 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the ways in which older adults use the Internet for social support and found that greater involvement with the on-line community was predictive of lower perceived life stress.
Abstract: One important new context of communication for older adults is computer-mediated communication (CMC). Although the Internet has become an important resource for information, little is known about the ways in which individuals use this technology for social support. Older adults (mean age = 62) using SeniorNet and other related websites completed an on-line questionnaire (N = 136) investigating social support in the computer-mediated environment. Satisfaction with Internet providers of social support was significantly higher for high Internet users than for low Internet users whereas low Internet users were more satisfied with their non-Internet support networks than high Internet users. Internet companionship network size was significantly larger than Internet social support network size. Greater involvement with the on-line community was predictive of lower perceived life stress. Social support and companionship satisfaction were not related to the types of coping strategies used; however, the results indicate that direct action was the most common coping strategy for the sample.
347 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the influence of media content on voters' images at both the aggregate and individual levels as part of the continuing scholarly dialogue on competing approaches to framing research and attribute agenda setting.
Abstract: We advance the central proposition of agenda-setting theory - that elements prominent in the mass media's picture of the world influence the salience of those elements in the audience's picture - through the explication of a second level of agenda setting: attribute agenda setting. This preliminary research on candidate images during the 1996 Spanish general election simultaneously examined 2 attribute dimensions - substantive and affective descriptions - to test the hypothesis that media attribute agendas influence the voters' attribute agenda. Empirically, a high degree of correspondence was found between the attribute agendas of 7 different mass media and the voters' attribute agenda for each of the 3 candidates. The median correlation from these 21 tests of the hypothesis is +.72. Sixth-order partial correlations in which the influence of the other 6 mass media are removed from the correlation between a medium's agenda and the voters' agenda for a particular candidate have a median value of +.73. Additional analyses of the attribute agendas of each medium's primary audience in comparison with its principal competitor also yielded evidence of second-level agenda setting. Future research should pursue complex longitudinal designs tracing the impact of media content on voters' images at both the aggregate and individual levels as part of the continuing scholarly dialogue on competing approaches to framing research and attribute agenda setting.
346 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined ordinary political conversation in common spaces, asking Americans how freely and how often they talked about 9 political and personal topics at home, work, civic organizations, and elsewhere, finding that most topics were talked about most frequently at home and at work.
Abstract: For some theorists, talk about politics is infrequent, difficult, divisive, and, to be efficacious, must proceed according to special rules in protected spaces. We, however, examined ordinary political conversation in common spaces, asking Americans how freely and how often they talked about 9 political and personal topics at home, work, civic organizations, and elsewhere. Respondents felt free to talk about all topics. Most topics were talked about most frequently at home and at work, suggesting that the electronic cottage is wired to the public sphere. Political conversation in most loci correlated significantly with opinion quality and political participation, indicating that such conversation is a vital component of actual democratic practice, despite the emphasis given to argumentation and formal deliberation by some normative theorists.
303 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the paradoxes, contradictions, and audience members' struggles in the process of media-stimulated change, a process involving parasocial interaction, peer communication, and collective efficacy.
Abstract: Most past studies of entertainment-education programs have not provided an adequate theoretical explanation of the process through which community members enact system-level changes as a result of exposure to entertainment-education media message. Here we study the effects of an entertainment-education radio soap opera by means of an observational case study in one Indian village. We investigate the paradoxes, contradictions, and audience members' struggles in the process of media-stimulated change, a process involving parasocial interaction, peer communication, and collective efficacy.
TL;DR: The authors examines the trajectory of Chinese Communist party-controlled press commercialization in China and discusses the active role of the Chinese state in incorporating market-based press forms and practices into the existing press structure.
Abstract: This paper examines the trajectory of Chinese Communist party-controlled press commercialization in China and discusses the active role of the Chinese state in incorporating market-based press forms and practices into the existing press structure. Although market-oriented press developments in the past 2 decades have created a dynamic mass appeal sector catering to the urban middle class, it has also inadvertently led to a fragmented and decentralized press structure that undermined core party organs and their capital accumulation. Consequently, the party engineered a market rationalization campaign and pushed for press conglomeration. Both are aimed at enhancing political control on the one hand and facilitating press capitalization on the other. These developments are not only counter-intuitive to laissez-faire notions of free markets versus state control, but also have profound implications for emerging class and power relations in China.
TL;DR: The authors found that African American girls do respond differently to and are differently affected by thin images than European American girls, but there are also some similarities between the adolescents that foreshadow a narrowing of the ethnic gap in the development of eating disorders.
Abstract: Research has shown differences in the extent of eating-disordered attitudes and behaviors between African American and European American women. However, the extent to which those differences are a result of differences in cognitive processing and exposure of mediated images remains untested. This study tests that notion through the framework of social comparison theory. The sample consists of 145 White and 33 Black females from 2 high schools in 2 medium-sized Midwestern cities. Results indicate that African American girls do respond differently to and are differently affected by thin images than European American girls. However, there are also some similarities between the adolescents that foreshadow a narrowing of the ethnic gap in the development of eating disorders.
TL;DR: This paper examined grandparents' written accounts of conversations with their college-aged grandchildren and described four themes that indicate the place of the relationship in the grandparents' lives and their general orientation to their grandchildren.
Abstract: This paper examines grandparents' written accounts of conversations with their college-aged grandchildren. Using a thematic analysis, we describe 4 themes that indicate the place of the relationship in the grandparents' lives and their general orientation to their grandchildren. It is argued that expressions of affiliation, pride, exchange (primarily of advice and information), and feeling distance from their grandchildren are fundamental elements of the relationship from the grandparents' perspectives. These are discussed in terms of the grandchild's place in the grandparent's life and the complexities of negotiating this relationship during a period of grandchild transition away from the parental home.
TL;DR: Coupland et al. as mentioned in this paper surveyed college-aged grandchildren as to the frequency of their communication with a grandparent using various media, including face-to-face (FtF) and telephone communication.
Abstract: This study surveyed college-aged grandchildren as to the frequency of their communication with a grandparent using various media. Face-to-face (FtF) and telephone communication were used more frequently than written media, but all were used fairly frequently. Communication using all media was more frequent when the grandparent or grandchild initiated interaction as opposed to the parent. Relationships in which the grandparent initiated contact featured more use of written media (letters, e-mail, cards). Frequency of communication using all media was positively associated with relational quality. Telephone communication best predicted relational quality when use of other media was controlled. In this paper, I discuss implications for media richness theory, the communication predicament of aging model, and future research on grandparent-grandchild relationships. This paper examines the grandparent-grandchild (GP-GC) relationship in the context of a growing literature concerning communication between older and younger adults that has enlightened us as to the processes and problems of such communication. The work of Hummert and her colleagues has provided new insights on the nature of intergenerational stereotypes and their role in influencing communication in intergenerational settings featuring elderly people (Hummert, 1994; Hummert, Shaner, Garstka, & Henry, 1998; see also Harwood, McKee, & Lin, 2000). Ryan, Giles, and their colleagues have provided important information concerning the determinants and consequences of patronizing speech in such settings (Harwood & Giles, 1996; Ryan, Giles, Bartolucci, & Henwood, 1986). Giles and collaborators have provided information on cross-cultural dimensions to the intergenerational communication process (Williams et al., 1997). Finally, N. Coupland, J. Coupland, and their coworkers have provided insights into the discoursal management of intergenerational relations (Coupland, Coupland, &
TL;DR: The authors investigated whether the third-person effect extends to the perception of other people's media use, and whether it can be explained by a general tendency to underrate the education of others.
Abstract: Both conceptually and empirically, the third-person effect has been confined to the effects of mass communication (people tend to believe others are more susceptible to media influences than they are themselves, and people tend to act accordingly). This study investigated whether this phenomenon extends to the perception of other people's media use, and whether it can be explained by a general tendency to underrate the education of others. We interviewed a sample of 200 adults in south-western Germany, focusing on television-viewing behavior. As hypothesized, people tend to perceive others as more inclined toward undesirable viewing behaviors. We also hypothesized and found that third-person perception tends to be stronger if the others are perceived to be less well educated.
TL;DR: The authors investigated the argument activities of majority and minority factions in small group decision-making situations and found that winning and losing subgroups argue differently (as do minority and majority subgroups overall) and that consistency in argument is a strong predictor of subgroup success.
Abstract: In this paper, the authors investigate the argument activities of majority and minority factions in small group decision-making situations. We begin by identifying patterns of argument that characterize majority and minority communication in 34 discussions and then test several subgroup-outcome and argument-outcome links. Results indicate that winning and losing subgroups argue differently (as do minority and majority subgroups overall) and that consistency in argument is a strong predictor of subgroup success. Both theoretical and practical implications for subgroup influence in group decision making accrue from these findings.
TL;DR: Compared to the control group, the experimental group listed significantly more gun safety practices, perceived greater susceptibility to accidental gun injuries, perceived gun injuries to be more severe, and perceived greater response efficacy toward some of the recommendedGun safety practices.
Abstract: This paper reports the outcome evaluation of a gun safety video intervention. Guided largely by the extended parallel process model, the video, Bullet ‘Proof’ - The Case for Gun Safety' focuses primarily on (a) knowledge of 6 gun safety practices, (b) susceptibility to accidental gunshot injuries and death, severity of gunshot injuries, (d) response efficacy, and (e) self-efficacy. The video was shown to 175 individuals in 7 hunter safety classes and evaluated in a field experiment using a posttest-only control-group design with random assignment. Compared to the control group, the experimental group listed significantly more gun safety practices, perceived greater susceptibility to accidental gun injuries, perceived gun injuries to be more severe, and perceived greater response efficacy toward some of the recommended gun safety practices. Further, all of the recommended gun safety practices received high self-efficacy and behavioral intention ratings. Finally, the video itself scored high on all measured positive attributes, and low on all measured negative attributes.
TL;DR: In this article, a distributional survey and qualitative analyses of older people's ads were conducted to understand how advertisers respond to, and negotiate, normative constraints on their communicative task in this genre.
Abstract: Dating ads are a revealing site for analyzing age-identity negotiations. Through a distributional survey and qualitative analyses of older people's ads, this paper shows how advertisers respond to, and negotiate, normative constraints on their communicative task in this genre. Older people's dating ads tend to express restrained, modest, and nonsexual relational goals. Their references to age often are mitigated. Appearance is given less emphasis and is represented less evaluatively than in text written by younger advertisers. However, several instances stretch the boundaries of the dating ad genre. They find ways to comment on, and sometimes undermine, the ageist assumptions that restrict older people's relational and lifestyle ambitions.
TL;DR: The use of political bumper stickers in Israel began as a spontaneous protest medium, evolving into a routinized form of public discourse, taking place throughout the year, independently of national elections as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The use of political bumper stickers in Israel began as a spontaneous protest medium, evolving into a routinized form of public discourse, taking place throughout the year, independently of national elections. The rules of interaction of this nontraditional means of political communication are identified and the complex relationships between the messages within their social situation are investigated using an ethnographic model. This analysis reveals that the medium does indeed constitute a structured means of expression with identifiable forms, rules, and usages, affording the person in the street a way of participating in the national discourse, bypassing traditional avenues of influence. The detailed examination of a single political bumper sticker reveals a structure parallel to the overall code, further demonstrating the intricacy of the messages. The analysis shows how this political discourse reflects social norms peculiar to Israel and how its use has become an affirmation of cultural identity. Because the fundamental properties of political bumper stickers have now been exposed, it is possible to examine how the actual use of this medium changes the structure of political agency in society through the presumption that ordinary individuals have the right of access to the public debate of national political issues, a right heretofore exclusively the prerogative of institutional power holders.
TL;DR: Political sophisticates were found to process information more efficiently and be more likely to adopt noncompensatory decision rules than were nonsophisticates, particularly when effortful processing was involved.
Abstract: An experiment investigated how 4 different information-processing goals, varying on the dimensions of effortful vs. effortless and impression-driven vs. non-impression-driven processing, and individual difference in political sophistication affect the depth at which people process candidate information and their decision-making strategies. The results showed that subjects with the goal of memorizing information (effortful and non-impression-driven processing) conducted the deepest information search by accessing the largest amount of information and spending the longest time on searching information, followed by those with the goal of carefully evaluating candidates (effortful and impression-driven processing). Moreover, political sophisticates were found to process information more efficiently and be more likely to adopt noncompensatory decision rules than were nonsophisticates, particularly when effortful processing was involved.
TL;DR: In this paper, a middle-aged woman confronted either her young adult daughter or her older adult mother about a problem behavior, and participants evaluated the direct control strategy more negatively than the other 2 strategies, and rated the indirect control strategy as more nurturing than other two strategies.
Abstract: Young, middle-aged, and older adult participants evaluated conversation scenarios that presented a middle-aged woman confronting either her young adult daughter or her older adult mother about a problem behavior. In all scenarios, the competence of the younger or older adult was salient, and the middle-aged woman used 1 of 3 control strategies: indirect, direct, or no control. As predicted, participants evaluated the direct control strategy more negatively than the other 2 strategies, and rated the indirect control strategy as more nurturing than the other 2 strategies. In addition, participants who were considering mothers in their 70s viewed the direct control strategy as more appropriate and the no control strategy as less appropriate than did those considering daughters in their 20s. Contrary to expectations, however, participant and target age did not interact to affect perceptions of the strategies, nor did a clear preference for the no control strategy over indirect control emerge. Results are interpreted within the framework of politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987), notions of autonomy and paternalism (Cicirelli, 1992), and the communication predicament of aging model (Ryan, Giles, Bartolucci, & Henwood, 1986).
TL;DR: The authors explored the effect of humor in violent action movies, focusing on the effects of wisecracking heroes and villains on audience distress, and found that female viewers found humor in an action film more distressing than real violence, while males found it less distressing.
Abstract: This experimental investigation explores the use of humor in violent action films, focusing on the effects of wisecracking heroes and villains on audience distress. An action film was edited to create control film versions without wisecracking dialogue. The research revealed contrast effects. Among female viewers, hero wisecracks in an action film increased distress reactions to the film, but lessened distressful reactions to subsequent televised depictions of real, nonhumorous violence. Conversely, males exposed to hero humor found the film marginally less distressing, but rated depictions of real violence more distressing. For all viewers, effects of villain wisecracks tended to parallel females' reactions to hero wisecracks. Disposition theory is offered as a plausible explanations of study findings.
TL;DR: The authors examined connections between the public and private dialogues about TV family portrayals by focusing on TV family realism, structure, and relationship models with a social learning model, and found that TV families affect expectations for family life, valued features of family, and communication with family members.
Abstract: Though research on TV family portrayals exists and family images have been criticized in public arenas, there is a lack of research on parents and children's responses to family portrayals For this study, I interviewed parents and children in order to examine connections between the public and private dialogues about TV family portrayals The private dialogue closely approximated the public dialogue by focusing on TV family realism, structure, and relationship models Implicit in participants' arguments was a social learning model Most participants argued that family portrayals affect expectations for family life, valued features of family, and communication with family members This article discusses the connections between public opinion and family communication
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report and discuss a study undertaken at a West Coast U.S. retirement community and examine how the residents' discourse reveals a number of dialectical contradictions that elders who choose the retirement community lifestyle may need to manage in order to facilitate adjustment.
Abstract: This paper reports and discusses a study undertaken at a West Coast U.S. retirement community. Fifteen able elderly residents were interviewed about their personal relationships and communication with peers, family, and younger people. The paper examines how the residents' discourse reveals a number of dialectical contradictions that elders who choose the retirement community lifestyle may need to manage in order to facilitate adjustment. Among the dialectical contradictions discussed here is the difficulty of managing issues of autonomy versus connection with the family network on the one hand and the retirement community on the other. This is a particularly salient issue, given the dominance of dependency-related stereotypes associated with such communities and those who choose to reside in them. This paper also looks at the contradictory dialectical pushes and pulls of connection and autonomy with respect to peer and friendship networks within the community. In this regard, our data illustrate residents' attempts to manage stresses that ill health and frailty place on relationships. In some senses, the elders interviewed, especially frail elders, positively disassociated themselves from some peers, while seeking to form and maintain satisfactory relationships with other peers, some of whom were in ill health. These issues are discussed with respect to retirement community living as a lifestyle choice.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that these different policy outcomes in the reform of broadcasting regulation in Brazil and Argentina reflect variations in three factors: the nature of the political system, the structure of the existing broadcasting industry, and the ideological legacy in the regulation of communication industries.
Abstract: Regulatory reform has changed the organization of the broadcasting industry in Brazil and Argentina in the past decade. Although responding to a similar set of pressure, the pace, instruments, and character of reforms have been different in the 2 countries, resulting in media markets of diverse natures. This study argues that these different policy outcomes in the reform of broadcasting regulation in Brazil and Argentina reflect variations in three factors: the nature of the political system, the structure of the existing broadcasting industry, and the ideological legacy in the regulation of communication industries. The case of regulatory reform in the broadcasting industry illustrates different policy patterns in the restructuring of state-industry relations in communications and information technology industries in the 2 neighboring countries.
TL;DR: The authors examined the discursive packaging of these holidays in brochures widely available in the U.K., using a broadly critical discourse analysis framework (e.g., Fairclough, 1995).
Abstract: With the lowering of retirement age, a new group of consumers of leisure has emerged. The tourist industry has responded by offering holidays for the over 50s or holidays for ‘the 50-plus lifestyle’. This paper first looks at the discursive packaging of these holidays in brochures widely available in the U.K., using a broadly critical discourse analysis framework (e.g., Fairclough, 1995). The dilemmas of characterizing the target group and the holidays in these texts are examined and linked with the notions of ageism, anti-ageism, and the denial of aging. Second, through the analysis of 2 extracts of spoken discourse between travel agency staff and older clients, I show how the selling and buying of these holidays involves potentially problematic age-salient positioning of the client. The dialectics of autonomy vs. connection and independence vs. dependence in later life underlie both the written and the spoken texts under examination.
TL;DR: This article examined what policymakers do with discourse about race in news media and found evidence linking press content or journalists' comments about race with advocacy by elites of certain legislative policies, suggesting that mass communication has been used in public discussion about race relations.
Abstract: In public discourse about race relations, social and political actors interact with the press with the goal of shaping the picture of social reality accepted by policymakers and citizens. In a departure from research focusing on how elites shape news coverage, this research examines what policymakers do - in a strategic sense - with discourse about race in news media. Evidence linking press content or journalists' comments about race with advocacy by elites of certain legislative policies would be suggestive of how mass communication has been ‘used’ in public discussion about race relations. With this in mind, this research examines 2 important congressional debates about race relations during a critical era in U.S. history.
TL;DR: This paper analyzed the California Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot measure that won 54% of the popular vote in November 1996 to end affirmative action in California, revealing an individual rights framing of the issues, an emphasis on racialized internal enemies and the appointment of "allies" within the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Abstract: This essay presents an analysis of the California Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot measure that won 54% of the popular vote in November 1996 to end affirmative action in California. Themes within the public campaign organized by supporters of the measure reveal an ‘individual rights’ framing of the issues, an emphasis on racialized ‘internal enemies’, and the appointment of ‘allies’ within the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The essay analyzes these themes to interrogate the ways in which the policy process operates as an important site for the production of knowledge about affirmative action, Black Americans, and racial history.