The framesetting effects of news: An experimental test of advocacy versus objectivist frames

This study merges framing and agenda-setting research by focusing on the relative power of certain news frames to limit audience cognition and influence attitudes. It proposes a cognitive-based model for understanding when news stories are likely to have the dual effect of transferring both object and frame salience to audiences, an effect here called "framesetting," that is more likely to occur when the press employs advocacy frames using consensus cues as opposed to objectivist frames based on the journalistic norm of two-sidedness. Data from a controlled experimental test show that advocacy frames had a stronger framesetting effect than objectivist framed crime stories, transferring both object and frame salience to audiences and limiting audience cognition.