CAUSING A RUCKUS: RACIAL FRAMING IN POLITICAL BLOGS DURING THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

Abstract

This investigation seeks to observe and examine the presence of racial framing during the 2008 presidential election. Twelve hypotheses were advanced for this study observing explicit and implicit racial framing, racial stereotypes, and modern racism. A content analysis examined five conservative blogs, five liberal blogs, and two national circulation newspapers for this study. Utilizing framing analysis, it was predicted that both explicit and implicit racial framing would be consistently present in political blogs and mainstream media during the 2008 presidential campaign. A chi-square analysis was utilized to interpret the data and a post-hoc examination was employed to further identify potential variations within the study data. The explicit and implicit interpretations are based on Mendelberg's (2001) racial appeals.