SWITCHING TRAINS OF THOUGHT - THE IMPACT OF NEWS FRAMES ON READERS COGNITIVE RESPONSES

This study investigated how journalistic story frames can affect the t houghts and feelings of readers. Two hundred and seventy-eight student s participated in two studies, reading and responding to a fictitious story about possible reductions in state funding of their university. Stories were presented in one of four randomly assigned versions, all containing the same information, but varying in their opening and clos ing paragraphs according to the frame employed: human interest, confli ct, or personal consequences. A control version contained the common b ody only. In Study 1, thoughts listed by participants indicated that t he news frames-although they had no influence on the volume of cogniti ve responses-significantly affected the topical focus and evaluative i mplications of thoughts generated. In Study 2, evaluations and opinion s offered by participants indicated that the news frames also subtly c ould affect audience decision making about matters of public policy. I mplications for shaping public opinion are discussed.