Media and the construction of public opinion about affirmative action, race and related issues: A case study of opinions expressed during the 1992 United States presidential election campaign [microform]
- Bib ID:
- 3283929
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Weerakkody, Niranjala Damayanthi
- Description:
- 348 p.
- ISBN:
- 059961806X
- Summary:
-
This study analyzed depth and focus group interviews held at different locations and during various stages of the 1992 US presidential campaign by the "Democracy '92 Project" at the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard University. Interviewees were simply asked to discuss the most important issue to them in the context of the presidential election. The data analyzed were the depth interviews from Fargo-Moorhead, ND, which is predominantly white in its population and Los Angeles, CA, which is racially diverse and the focus groups from the racially mixed Boston, MA and Winston-Salem, NC, in addition to Los Angeles and Fargo-Moorhead. Focus groups were shown stimuli consisting of TV news, candidate commercials and American Agenda programs.
The depth interview subjects were selected based on the demographic figures at each location, while all focus groups consisted of whites. Every opinion expressed by the interview subjects on Affirmative Action, race and related issues such as racism, race relations in the USA, welfare, immigration, foreign aid, crime, drugs were analyzed for this study. The method followed in analyzing opinions was pattern coding, which developed 15 themes, frames and categories for the 1396 opinions coded. These opinions were qualitatively analyzed to examine several research questions. The 15 themes were then used as dependent variables, and the demographic and other theoretically relevant factors about the subjects were used as the independent variables to quantitatively analyze each opinion using a prepared coding manual and the computer software SPSS 8.0.
The quantitative analysis enriched the findings of the qualitative analysis, examining how often these 15 themes of opinions were expressed and what the relationships between the opinions and the demographic and other factors of subjects expressing them were. These factors related to individual thought processes such as proximity of issue, issue engagement, beliefs, general knowledge, assigning responsibility and individual frames used. The central thesis of the study was that "racial prejudice is based on both sociological and psychological factors. The psychological factors are mainly based on status, self interest linked to self-esteem and tangible benefits. The sociological are based on group interests linked to group status and intangible benefits."
- Notes:
-
- (UnM)AAI9948346
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 60-11, Section: A, page: 3843.
- Director: Montague Kern.
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--Rutgers The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick, 1999.
- Reproduction:
- Microfiche. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International.
- Subject:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Rutgers The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1999
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