Framing: What and How to Think

I found myself intrigued by a third case study that was used as evidence that the process of framing actually alters images in peoples' minds when reading or watching the news. Griffin notes the third study conducted by Salma Ghanem for her doctoral dissertation under McCombs' supervision at UT (Univ. of Texas) on page 366. In short, Ghanem analyzed the percent changes of crime concern among Texas residents and actual criminal acts. Concern had gone up even though the frequency and severity of crimes had gone down and realized that the increased salience of crime was driven by the local media. Using the two levels of agenda setting in her study, she tracked the transfer of salience of specific crime attributes as well as the frame of where the crime took place. The frame that crime could 'happen to anyone' was powerful as well the crimes that were 'close to home' versus the ones that happened out of state. The correlations between these media frames and public concern suggest that attribute frames make compelling arguments for people who are exposed to the news.

This case study was interesting to me, because more often than not, when I watch the news, I always find myself thinking how depressing it is with the stories they choose to cover.
I have also fallen for the fear instilled by some of the news stories that some of these crimes portrayed "could happen to anyone" and although that is certainly true, I think that the salience of certain issues is magnified two-fold by the media. I would be interested to see more of these studies conducted in different areas to see if it really holds true.