“Illegal,” “Undocumented,” or “Unauthorized”: Equivalency Frames, Issue Frames, and Public Opinion on Immigration

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 789-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Merolla ◽  
S. Karthick Ramakrishnan ◽  
Chris Haynes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Limited Effect ◽  
Issue Frames ◽  
First Time

Immigration has been a salient and contentious topic in the United States, with a great deal of congressional debate, advocacy efforts, and media coverage. Among conservative and liberal groups, there is a vigorous debate over the terms used to describe this population, such as “undocumented” or “illegal,” as both sides perceive significant consequences to public opinion that flow out of this choice in equivalency frames. These same groups also compete over the ways in which immigration policies are framed. Here, for the first time, we examine the use of both types of frames (of immigrants themselves, and the policies affecting them) in media coverage. Importantly, we also test for whether these various frames affect preferences on three different policies of legalization. Our results suggest that efforts to focus on the terms used to describe immigrants have limited effect, and that efforts to frame policy offer greater promise in swaying public opinion on immigration.

scholarly journals #MaskOn! #MaskOff! Digital polarization of mask-wearing in the United States during COVID-19

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0250817
Author(s):  
Jun Lang ◽  
Wesley W. Erickson ◽  
Zhuo Jing-Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Verbal Representation ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
The One

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused an unprecedented public health crisis worldwide. Its intense politicization constantly made headlines, especially regarding the use of face masks as a safety precaution. However, the extent to which public opinion is polarized on wearing masks has remained anecdotal and the verbal representation of this polarization has not been explored. This study examined the types, themes, temporal trends, and exchange patterns of hashtags about mask wearing posted from March 1 to August 1, 2020 by Twitter users based in the United States. On the one hand, we found a stark rhetorical polarization in terms of semantic antagonism between pro- and anti-mask hashtags, exponential frequency increases of both types of hashtags during the period under study, in parallel to growing COVID-19 case counts, state mask mandates, and media coverage. On the other hand, the results showed an asymmetric participatory polarization in terms of a predominance of pro-mask hashtags along with an “echo chamber” effect in the dominant pro-mask group, which ignored the subversive rhetoric of the anti-mask minority. Notwithstanding the limitations of the research, this study provides a nuanced account of the digital polarization of public opinion on mask wearing. It draws attention to political polarization both as a rhetorical phenomenon and as a participatory process.

Crime, Punishment, and Social Disorder

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
James D. Wright ◽  
Jana L. Jasinski ◽  
Drew Noble Lanier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Social Disorder ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Changing Attitudes ◽  
First Time

In 1980, Arthur Stinchcombe, Tom Smith, Garth Taylor, and several additional coauthors published Crime and Punishment—Changing Attitudes in America. The book reviewed public opinion data from the first five or six waves of the General Social Survey (GSS), plus a large number of pre-GSS polls and surveys dating back to the 1930s, all dealing with attitudes of the American public toward crime, punishment, and social disorder. This chapter revisits the principal findings, themes, and conclusions of Crime and Punishment in light of what is now 30-plus years worth of GSS data. In addition, for the first time since Crime and Punishment was published, the United States has recently experienced a sharp decline in crime rates that began in about 1994 and continued for a decade. Thus, the chapter also explores the apparent effects of declining crime rates on Americans' attitudes about crime, punishment, and related matters.

scholarly journals Atheism in US and UK Newspapers: Negativity about Non-Belief and Non-Believers

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 291
Author(s):  
A. Maurits van der Veen ◽  
Erik Bleich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
The Media ◽  
First Time

Atheists are among the most disliked “religious” groups in the United States, but the origins of this aversion remain poorly understood. Because the media are an important source of public attitudes, we analyze coverage of atheism and atheists in American and British newspapers. Using computational text analysis techniques, including sentiment analysis and topic modeling, we show that atheism is portrayed negatively by the print media. Significantly, we show that greater negativity is associated with atheism as a concept than with atheists as individuals. Building on this insight, and challenging arguments that prominent atheist intellectuals attract negative coverage, we also find that coverage of famous atheists is actually more positive than that of atheists or atheism in general. Overall, our findings add a new dimension to scholarship on differences between individual-targeted and group-targeted tolerance in public attitudes, establishing for the first time that media coverage mirrors such differences.

scholarly journals Strategies and Tactics in Gaining Public Opinion

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2 (6)) ◽  
pp. 66-71
Author(s):  
Armine Simonyan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
First Time ◽  
To Receive

One of the contemporary spheres of modern linguistics is the study of political discourse.For a politician, language is a weapon to win the favours of public at large. The article aims to reveal how American politicians use English to receive the support of the nation. The research is conducted on the debates between the US presidential candidates in 2008 – Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. The reason for the choice is obvious. Both candidates, as members of the same party, seem to have a lot in common. Both belong to the same party, hence, they should have an audience committed to the same democratic principles whereas, the differences are more than obvious. It is the first time in the history of the United States that the post of the US president has two main candidates that are so different – a woman and a coloured man. The article includes research on the tactics and strategies applied by both the candidates.

The Public Agenda

2019 ◽  
pp. 219-242
Author(s):  
Shaun Bevan ◽  
Will Jennings
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Survey Question ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Public Agenda

This chapter considers the question of what shapes the public agenda and how, in turn, the public agenda influences public policy. It introduces the survey question about the most important problem as a measure of the public agenda—comparing evidence on the policy issues attended to by publics in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain, and also the degree to which public opinion itself is subject to “punctuations.” The analysis shows how the public agenda reflects both the problem status and level of media coverage of certain issues (specifically crime and the economy). Lastly, it presents evidence on the correspondence between the priorities of citizens and those of policymakers.

Coverage of The United States-Pakistan Relationsin American Newspapers

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-214
Author(s):  
Saqib Riaz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
The Public ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Media ◽  
One Year

Abstract The relations between the United States of America and Pakistan have a significant impact on the world’s politics as well as in shaping the future of the globe. However, the relations between the two countries have been passing through a lot of ups and downs during the last seven decades. Media have a pivotal role in framing and shaping this ‘love and hate’ relationship. The purpose of this study was to investigate the coverage of the United States-Pakistan relations by the American newspapers because the media coverage shapes the public opinion. Two major newspapers of the United States were content analyzed for a period of one year with the help of Lexis and Nexis and the coverage of Pakistan was measured and analyzed qualitatively as well as quantitatively. The results of the study revealed that the American newspapers portrayed a highly negative image of Pakistan and most of the coverage about the bilateral relations was found as negative.

The End of Empire and the Search for Justice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Linarelli ◽  
Margot E Salomon ◽  
Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Economic ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Economic Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Order ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
First Time

This chapter is a study of the themes of the New International Economic Order (NIEO). It begins with the notion of justice that had been constructed in imperial law to justify empire and colonialism. The NIEO was the first time a prescription was made for justice in a global context not based on domination of one people over another. In its consideration of the emergence of a new notion of justice in international law, the chapter discusses the reasons for the origins of the NIEO, and goes on to describe the principles of the NIEO and the extent to which they came into conflict with dominant international law as accepted by the United States and European states. Next the chapter deals with the rise of the neoliberal ideology that led to the displacement of the NIEO and examines the issue of whether the NIEO and its ideals have passed or whether they continue to be or should be influential in international law. Finally, the chapter turns to the ideas of the NIEO alongside new efforts at promoting a fuller account of justice by which to justify and evaluate international law.

Sources of Information About Gestational Weight Gain, Diet, and Exercise Among Brazilian Immigrant Women Living in the United States: A Cross-Sectional Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Ana Cristina Lindsay ◽  
Qun Le ◽  
Denise Lima Nogueira ◽  
Márcia M. T. Machado ◽  
Mary L. Greaney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Weight Gain ◽  
Gestational Weight Gain ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Gestational Weight ◽  
Diet And Exercise ◽  
First Time

Abstract Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess sources of information about gestational weight gain (GWG), diet, and exercise among first-time pregnant Brazilian women in the United States (US). Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Massachusetts, United States. Participants: First-time pregnant Brazilian women. Results: Eighty-six women, the majority of whom were immigrants (96.5%) classified as having low-acculturation levels (68%), participated in the study. Approximately two-thirds of respondents had sought information about GWG (72.1%), diet (79.1%), and exercise (74.4%) via the internet. Women classified as having low acculturation levels were more likely to seek information about GWG via the internet (OR = 7.55; 95% CI: 1.41, 40.26) than those with high acculturation levels after adjusting for age and receiving information about GWG from healthcare provider (doctor or midwife). Moreover, many respondents reported seeking information about GWG (67%), diet (71%), and exercise (52%) from family and friends. Women who self-identified as being overweight pre-pregnancy were less likely to seek information about diet (OR = 0.32; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.93) and exercise (OR = 0.33; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.96) from family and friends than those who self-identified being normal weight pre-pregnancy. Conclusions: This is the first study to assess sources of information about GWG, diet, and exercise among pregnant Brazilian immigrants in the US. Findings have implications for the design of interventions and suggest the potential of mHealth intervention as low-cost, easy access option for delivering culturally and linguistically tailored evidence-based information about GWG incorporating behavioral change practices to this growing immigrant group.

scholarly journals Learning to Detain Asylum Seekers and the Growth of Mass Immigration Detention in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Smita Ghosh ◽  
Mary Hoopes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Component ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Important Shift

Drawing upon an analysis of congressional records and media coverage from 1981 to 1996, this article examines the growth of mass immigration detention. It traces an important shift during this period: while detention began as an ad hoc executive initiative that was received with skepticism by the legislature, Congress was ultimately responsible for entrenching the system over objections from the agency. As we reveal, a critical component of this evolution was a transformation in Congress’s perception of asylum seekers. While lawmakers initially decried their detention, they later branded them as dangerous. Lawmakers began describing asylum seekers as criminals or agents of infectious diseases in order to justify their detention, which then cleared the way for the mass detention of arriving migrants more broadly. Our analysis suggests that they may have emphasized the dangerousness of asylum seekers to resolve the dissonance between their theoretical commitments to asylum and their hesitance to welcome newcomers. In addition to this distinctive form of cognitive dissonance, we discuss a number of other implications of our research, including the ways in which the new penology framework figured into the changing discourse about detaining asylum seekers.

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