The Framesetting Effects of News: An Experimental Test of Advocacy versus Objectivist Frames

Abstract

This study merges framing and agenda-setting research by focusing on the relative power of certain news frames to limit audience cognition and influence attitudes. It proposes a cognitive-based model for understanding when news stories are likely to have the dual effect of transferring both object and frame salience to audiences, an effect here called “frame-setting,” that is more likely to occur when the press employs advocacy frames using consensus cues as opposed to objectivist frames based on the journalistic norm of two-sidedness. Data from a controlled experimental test show that advocacy frames had a stronger framesetting effect than objectivist framed crime stories, transferring both object and frame salience to audiences and limiting audience cognition.