Assessing the democratic debate: How the news media frame elite policy discourse

This article examines the way in,which the news media frame public policy i ssues and the extent to which other political players (e.g.. interest group s, politicians) influence this issue framing process. Our analysis focuses on the issue of gun control, comparing the rhetoric generated by interest g roups and public officials on the Brady Bill and Assault Weapons Ban with a ctual network news coverage of this legislation from 1988 to 1996. Results indicate that both sets of political players employed several interpretativ e issue frames and worked hard to put their preferred themes on the agenda. However, at times, the media intervened in the framing process, especially as the debate matured Specifically, the news media (a) structured the over all tone of the gun control debate. (b) adopted a distribution of framing p erspectives different from that of politicians and interest groups, and (c) packaged policy discourse more often than nor in terms of the "culture of violence" theme. These findings point toward previously ignored media effec ts and attest to the potential role the media play in shaping public policy debates.