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Socialized Medicine in Letters to the Editor: An Analysis of Liberal and Conservative Moral Frames

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Communication Studies (Communication).
In an attempt to unravel the reasons behind the political contentiousness and persistence of the term socialized medicine in discussions of health care reforms, I explored the term's origins and history, frequency in news items, and meanings in contexts. In the following, I present frequency distributions that illustrate the initial emergence of the term socialized medicine in a newspaper article in 1917 and document its continued presence through 2010. I also present the results of a content analysis pilot study of the term in a sample of newspaper articles from 1993 through 2008, which guided my decision to select letters to the editor as the text for analysis in the framing study that follows. I selected letters to the editor written by ordinary citizens from 1993-2010 that include the term socialized medicine in the headline or lead paragraph, and since attitudes about socialized medicine appear to break along political party lines, I evaluated the letters through the lens of George Lakoff's model of conservative and liberal worldviews as described in his book, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, first published in 1996 and again in 2001. My analysis reveals common liberal and conservative frames that emerged in 1993 and 1994, during the Clinton presidency, and which continued through 2010. My analysis also indicates an increase in the occurrence of pragmatist frames regarding health care reforms, especially during and following the 2008 presidential campaign. This study provides support for Lakoff's theory, and illustrates its potential heuristic value for communication research, particularly in the area of political communication.
Jerry Miller, PhD (Advisor)
498 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Romoser, M. A. (2014). Socialized Medicine in Letters to the Editor: An Analysis of Liberal and Conservative Moral Frames [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1388842426

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Romoser, Margaret. Socialized Medicine in Letters to the Editor: An Analysis of Liberal and Conservative Moral Frames. 2014. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1388842426.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Romoser, Margaret. "Socialized Medicine in Letters to the Editor: An Analysis of Liberal and Conservative Moral Frames." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1388842426

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)