Experiment
Chapter 9 assesses the effects of exposure to different author bylines and frames in news coverage of birth control policy. Using a series of survey experiments, this chapter identifies how exposure to the kinds of articles typically produced by male and female reporters influences media trust, political cynicism, and opinions about contraception. The results show that women asked to read articles on the contraceptive mandate written by other women viewed the media as more credible than women asked to read articles written by men. In addition, the results demonstrate that exposure to strategic game coverage significantly decreased perceptions of media credibility, enhanced feelings of political cynicism, reduced issue-specific information retention, and encouraged more frequent expressions of negativity among experimental participants. In line with previous research, the experimental results also show that support for the contraceptive mandate increased after reading an article framed around women’s health, reproductive rights, and sexual morality.