Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2018 Unpacking Social Bias: An Analysis of Socioeconomic Group Status and Transcaribe-Related in News Item Media Framing Nivia Escobar Salazar Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION UNPACKING SOCIAL BIAS: AN ANALYSIS OF SOCIOECONOMIC GROUP STATUS AND TRANSCARIBE- RELATED IN NEWS ITEM MEDIA FRAMING By NIVIA ESCOBAR SALAZAR A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2018 Nivia Escobar Salazar defended this thesis on April 2, 2018. The members of the supervisory committee were: Jessica Wendorf Muhamad Professor Directing Thesis Juliann Cortese Committee Member Stephen McDowell Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Wendorf Muhamad of the School of Communication at Florida State University. Since I met her, she has always been available to mentor and support me. Dr. Wendorf Muhamad allowed for my thesis to be my own work, while guiding me to improve my knowledge, as well as the research study. I would also like to thank my thesis committee. Dr. Cortese and Dr. McDowell provided continuous support and encouragement. Their input has been invaluable and I could not have been this thesis without their help and mentorship. Finally, thank you Tina Ricigliano, for all your efforts and tenacity in teaching me a language from scratch, and after almost five years continued supporting me. I must express my very profound gratitude to my family and friends, specially my dad, my grandmother, my aunt, my uncle who have helped me and provided me with unfailing support. My family and friends have been my encouragement to continue persuading my dreams and goals in life. The most important person who I owe who I am right now, my mother. Thank you, mom, for teaching me to be strong and determined. Thank you, Juan Muhamad, Alessandra Noli, Olivia Bravo, Joshua Hendrickse, Vaibhav Diwanji, Yesusa Collantes, School of Communication and The Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication & the LAC scholarship because this successful moment would not have never been possible without their help. Thank you, Nivia Escobar Salazar iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ..........................................................................................................................v ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................................................4 CHAPTER 3: METHOD ...............................................................................................................21 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ...............................................................................................................26 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................28 CHAPTER 6: FUTURE DIRECTIONS .......................................................................................33 APPENDIX A: CODING SHEET ................................................................................................34 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................35 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................41 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Factor Loadings of Five Frames on Socioeconomic Groups Levels...............................24 Table 2. Mean Scores of the Visibility of Five Frames on Socioeconomic Groups Levels. ........26 Table 3. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Between Socioeconomic Levels and Frame...............27 v ABSTRACT With an estimated cost of $175 million for 11 kilometers of rail (DNP, 2014), Transcaribe, a bus rapid transit system (BRT) was designed to facilitate mobility and sustainability throughout the city of Cartagena, Colombia, while stabilizing usage costs and fees and reducing emission rates linked to carcinogenic pollutants. It is expected that under optimal conditions the system would mobilize 39% (15.7 million) of the more than 40 million passengers transported via the corridor (Canabal, 2015); however, as of January 2017 adoption rates are calculated to have reached a mere 1.2 million (Boyano, Romero, & Ramos, 2016). As such, it has become imperative to understand what factors might be contributing to lowers than expected usage rates. Understanding how the media portrays Transcariberelated news items is an important first step. Therefore, the study consisted of a deductive examination of Transcaribe- related stories in the Cartagena, Colombia regional’s newspaper El Universal. Through applying a media framing scale (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000; Wendorf Muhamad & Yang, 2017) news items were examined for the presence or absence of five new frames: (1) attribution of responsibility (AR); (2) conflict frame (CF); (3) morality frame (MF); (4) human interest (HI); and (5) economic consequences (EC). Differences in absence or presence of frames between low and high socioeconomic neighborhoods were noted. Results indicate attribution of responsibility frame (n = 287) was the most frequently employed frame, followed by conflict frame (n = 193), human interest frame (n = 165), economic consequences frame (n = 104), and morality frame (n = 20). Attribution of responsibility is the most frequently used frame, present in low socioeconomic level (n = 173) and high socioeconomic level (n = 177). There were two hypotheses (HI, EC) supported and three (AR, CF, and MF) hypotheses rejected. vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Presently, there is a strong emphasis on increasing equity among community members, particularly in the area of access and mobility. With growing populations and urban centers, transportation to and from cities has become essential to daily functioning. Access to cities or urban centers via reliable transportation systems creates spaces where “people interact with others…and develop their collective goals (e.g., economic prosperity, social cohesion, and environmental sustainability)” (Mejia-Dugand, Baas, & Rios, 2013, p. 2). According to the mayor of Bogota, Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa (2011; 2017), cities should be centers in which democracy thrives, and this is only possible when cities are inclusive. Inclusive cities are those that create access and are also focused on the wellbeing of community members. As such, transportation system that have an environmental or sustainability dimension are integral to the promotion of inclusive and democratic cities. Cartagena de Indias (Cartagena, Colombia), founded in 1533, was the central port during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and today is recognized as a historical city and one of the first sanctuaries cities for freed slaves in the Americas. Cartagena’s population, an estimated 1,013,375 (~52% female) is largely mestizo, African and Spaniard mixed heritage (DANE, 2017). 96% of the population resides in urban areas. Today, Cartagena is in the midst of social change with greater attention being brought to access of educational and business centers through developing sustainable means of transportation in order to increase access to educational, business, and tourism centers (e.g., Cuidad Murallada). In an effort to achieve these goals, in 2016 the Colombian president, Juan 1 Manuel Santos, inaugurated the city’s first bus rapid transit system, Transcaribe (ITDP, 2017). In the months following the inauguration adoption rates appear to have stagnated. Among communication scholars, identification of frames is an established practice that provides valuable information. According to Tuchman (1978), frames are useful in providing meaning and organizing reality. Shah, Watts, Domke, and Fan (2002) further states that frames promote specific interpretations of key issues, thus being able to set trends, public discourse, and prioritize events (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). However, among scholars a lack of standardized measurement of frames has often led to issues of reliability or the implication of bias. Given that frames hold the potential to shift perspectives among audience members, it is essential to investigate the ways in which critical events are framed and to do so with limited bias. The purpose of the study is to examine media framing of Transcaribe, the bus rapid transit (BRT) system currently in operation in Cartagena, Colombia, via framing theory in Cartagena’s regional newspaper, El Universal. This study explores how frame differs across news stories across neighborhoods categorized as either high or low socioeconomic status in the Cartagena regional’s newspaper, El Universal, via framing theory. In an effort to reduce potential bias, this study adopts a validated 20-item questionnaire with five pre- established frames. The aim of this study to understand the ways in which the transportation