Spectacular politics, dramatic interpretations: Multiple meanings in the Thomas/Hill hearings

Symbolic politics theories suggest that political events take or? multiple meanings and that societal groups respond to a given event on the basis of different interpretations. We explore this claim through a quantitative cas e study of popular responses to a single political spectacle, the Senate he arings that investigated Anita Hill's claims against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Our. findings suggest that Hill and Thomas supporters ras responded to rile hearings oil the basis of fundamentally different conside rations. Moreover,, rile considerations that drove support for each actor v aried across groups defined by race, gender, and levels of media attention, Finally, different structures of consideration influenced the direction an d extremity of mass responses to this spectacle. Our analysis supports inte rpretivist theories of political communication and casts doubt on the presu mption that citizens with opposing responses to a political event share a c ommon dimension of conflict. In addition we argue that mass I responses to political spectacles can be studied within a framework that is general enou gh to be portable across cases. White the specific meanings that attend a p olitical drama will always be "case specific," the It ways in which these m eanings vary across mass publics can be understood through a more general s et of a analytic dimensions. We discuss the implications of our analysis fo r scholarship addressing mass-mediated political spectacles, public opinion , and democratic theory.