NEWS FRAMES, POLITICAL CYNICISM, AND MEDIA CYNICISM

Public confidence in Congress, the government, and social institutions has reached new lows. Healthy skepticism may have given way to corros ive cynicism. Some media watchers and critics blame the media for thei r preoccupation with the game and strategy of politics rather than soc ial problems and their solution. Others deny that changes in news have affected the quality of democracy or the depth of political alienatio n. Studies that we have conducted over the past four years show that s ubtle changes in the way news stories are framed can affect consumers' responses, activating their cynicism when strategic or conflict-orien ted frames are used. The studies directly implicate media framing of p olitical news in activating, if not creating, cynicism about campaigns , policy, and governance and imply that cynicism about the news media may be an indirect consequence.