Priming or Framing

Abstract

This study examines two routes for media effects on the standards by which people evaluate foreign countries. The first is indirect: a news story about an issue in a domestic context may heighten the cognitive accessibility of thoughts about the issue, thereby priming audience members to base their evaluations of foreign nations on those thoughts. The second is direct: a news story that presents a frame linking an issue to a foreign nation in a way that suggests a particular evaluative implication may shape how audience members judge that nation. An experiment revolving around media coverage of two issues and attitudes toward four nations found evidence for media influence along the second route but not the first.