Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Collins Thesis 11.21.13.pdf (457.16 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Framing the Great Divide: How the Candidates and Media Framed Class and Inequality During the 2012 Presidential Debates

Collins, Connie L
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1384638521

Abstract Details

2013, MA, Kent State University, College of Communication and Information / School of Media and Journalism.
Many communications scholars study political communication using frame analysis. There is, however, a lack of research into how frames are used in political communication to transmit meaning about economic class and inequality in American discourse. America long has been perceived as a land where opportunity is available to all. That notion is being challenged by an increasing disparity between the resources and opportunities that are available to a large percentage of Americans and what are available to a privileged few. Some journalists and economists call this the Great Divide between the 1 percent and the 99 percent most recently popularized by the Occupy Wall Street movement and protests. The presidential debates and the media coverage that followed the public outcry provided a rich source of elite frames that communicated meaning about class in America during the presidential election of 2012. This research explores the elite frame contest that surrounded the issues of class and the responsibilities of living in a shared economy. Its findings confirm the existence of a two-class structure, an emerging class struggle between the two, and the ideologies that drive the conflict.
Danielle Coombs, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Jacqueline Marino, M.A. (Committee Member)
Jeff Fruit, M.A. (Committee Member)
72 p.
Mass Communications; Mass Media
Economic class in America; the Great Divide; frame analysis; textual analysis; political communication; middle class as political tool; 2012 presidential debates; Entman, Cascade of Activation; elite communication, class struggle, shared economic space

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Collins, C. L. (2013). Framing the Great Divide: How the Candidates and Media Framed Class and Inequality During the 2012 Presidential Debates [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1384638521

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Collins, Connie. Framing the Great Divide: How the Candidates and Media Framed Class and Inequality During the 2012 Presidential Debates. 2013. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1384638521.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Collins, Connie. "Framing the Great Divide: How the Candidates and Media Framed Class and Inequality During the 2012 Presidential Debates." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1384638521

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1384638521
685
© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.