Framing an LGBT organization and a movement: A critical qualitative analysis of GLAAD’S media releases

Abstract

Combining the mass communication theories of agenda building and framing with a critical analysis of power, this study examined how an LGBT organization, GLAAD, used media releases to build and frame its message into public discourse. By analyzing 213 of GLAAD’s media releases from 2011 through 2012, this study, applying queer theory, critically examined how the releases defined the organization and indicated levels of power within the LGBT rights movement and the greater society. Overall, GLAAD’s releases indicated an emphasis on issues of violence and vulnerability against LGBT individuals and the promotion of LGBT celebrities and allies at media events. This showed the organization and the media’s lack of attention in promoting or covering less sensational LGBT issues based in principles of equality or relating to non-famous LGBT individuals. While the releases demonstrated an overall lack of power for non-elite individuals within the movement, the inclusion of social media and online petitions created by LGBT activists indicated new forms of public relations models that moved away from two-way symmetrical or asymmetrical approaches and toward fluid and dynamic models, allowing individual LGBT stakeholders greater power within the LGBT rights movement.