The interaction of news and advocate frames. Manipulating audience perceptions of a local public policy issue

This article presents the results of a two-wave experiment designed to examine how journalistic news frames can facilitate the communication of advocacy frames designed to influence audience perceptions of a political issue. We constructed five versions of a newspaper article about large-scale hog farms. The versions differed in the weight they gave to frames promoted by organizations interested in this issue. The relative emphasis given the competing frames was reflected in subjects' interpretations of the issue and in their evaluations of hog farms. A retest three weeks after the initial exposure revealed a significant, though muted, cognitive impact of the frames. The implications of these results for journalism, issue advocacy, and the study of issue framing are discussed.