Winning with Words: the Framing of Same-Sex Marriage Debate in North Carolinian Newspapers (2014)
Undergraduate: Hoang My Nguyen
Faculty Advisor: Barbara Friedman
Department: Women's and Gender Studies
On May 8th, 2012, North Carolina Amendment One (NC-1) was passed. NC 1 defines marriage as solely between a man and woman and denies legal recognition for any type of domestic union. This qualitative content analysis attempts to examine how localized mass media, specifically North Carolina county newspapers, framed the issue of same-sex marriage in news coverage. This research asks: how did three politically diverse North Carolina newspapers frame the issue of same-sex marriage in the period leading up to passage of Amendment One. This study of news coverage of same-sex marriage finds that there are two dominant and competing frames: morality and equality. Additionally, this study also finds that the news frames of same-sex marriage have been more nuanced, existing alongside the morality and equality frames. This research argues that the framing of the same-sex marriage debate invoked more nuanced themes such as the support of children, competing claims of harm, and separation of government power. Furthermore, same-sex marriage was also presented as ¿threat¿ and ¿in jeopardy¿ frames in news coverage of the same-sex marriage debate; that is, same-sex marriage is framed as a ¿threat¿ to the heterosexual marriage institution, while at the same time the institution of marriage is also ¿in jeopardy¿ or on the verge of collapse. This study seeks to deepen our understandings of the complex relationship between public opinion, political policy, and news media.