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How Viewers React to Images of African-American Mothers on Welfare
How we come to understand the world around us, according to Walter Lippmann, is a function of the "pictures in our heads." Lippmann hypothesized that the news media plays a critical role in the formation of these images. In the three-quarters of a century since the publication of Lippmann's "Public Opinion," a wealth of scholarly literature has supported his original formulation.
It is now commonly believed that the news media generally, and television in particular, are the primary sources for most Americans in shaping their views about public issues. Thirty or so years of communications research shows that the media can influence what issues people pay attention to (their agenda-setting role). How the media highlight issues can lead readers and viewers to make judgments about politicians and policies (their so-called "priming" role). And finally, it is clear that qualitative aspects of news reporting determine how people think about public problems and their remedies (their "framing" role). In short, as we all recognize, news coverage influences public opinion.
One of the more controversial issues on the American domestic agenda is social welfare policy. The near unanimity surrounding the "Great Society" programs and policies of the midto-late 1960's has given way to discord and dissonance. Conservative thinkers and politicians first launched attacks on the "welfare state" in the aftermath of the civil rights disturbances of the late 1960's and early 1970's. While Barry Goldwater, George Wallace and Richard Nixon charted the course, Ronald Reagan encapsulated the white majority's growing unease with the perceived expansion of the social welfare apparatus. In particular, Reagan was able to forge a successful topdown coalition between big business and disaffected white working-class voters. The intellectual core of the movement was a well-funded punditry class that offered a theoretical vision for the "New Right." While this perspective touched on the cornerstones of American political philosophy-individualism and egalitarianism-it also carried with it a heavy undercurrent of gender and racial politics.
In the midst of this evolving political landscape on which new debates about welfare ensued, the news media played-and continues to play-a critical role in the public's understanding of what "welfare" ought to be. Utilizing a novel experimental design, I wanted to...