This Article Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0093650209333028v1 36/3/400    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Lecheler, S. Articles by Slothuus, R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Issue Importance as a Moderator of Framing Effects

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: C.H.deVreese{at}uva.nl.

	Abstract

A growing amount of research is devoted to the question of which individual and contextual variables enhance, limit, or obliterate news framing effects. However, the fundamental question whether framing effects vary depending on the issue at stake has not been addressed. Based on two experimental studies (total N = 1,821), this article investigates the extent to which framing effects differ in magnitude as well as process, depending on how important an issue is. The studies show that a high-importance issue yields no effects and a low-importance issue large effects. This moderating function of issue importance operates both at the contextual and at the individual levels. The implications for future framing effects research are discussed.

First published on April 6, 2009, doi:10.1177/0093650209333028

Communication Research 2009;36:400.

A more recent version of this article appeared on June 1, 2009


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?