FRAMING ABORTION: LOCAL, NATIONAL AND TWITTER COVERAGE OF SB5 IN TEXAS By DARLENA CUNHA A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN MASS COMMUNICATION UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2015 © 2015 Darlena Cunha To my family ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my husband, my twin daughters, my mother, my advisor and my committee. Their continued support in my life adventures are the reason I am able to advance my life in so many ways, and one paragraph does not suffice as proper gratitude. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................................7 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................8 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................11 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................20 Abortion in the News ..............................................................................................................20 Court Cases and Legislation ............................................................................................20 Media Effects ...................................................................................................................21 Senate Bill 5 ............................................................................................................................22 The Role of New Media and Blogging ...................................................................................24 The News Shift ................................................................................................................24 Micro-Blogging ...............................................................................................................25 Twitter .....................................................................................................................................26 Statistics ...........................................................................................................................26 How Twitter Works .........................................................................................................28 Who Uses Twitter ............................................................................................................31 Organizations and Twitter ...............................................................................................32 Twitter and the Public .....................................................................................................33 Twitter and Journalists ....................................................................................................34 Gatekeeping ............................................................................................................................37 Gatewatching ...................................................................................................................38 Blending Roles ................................................................................................................41 The Difference in Gatekeeping Roles Between Elite Publications and Other Publications ..................................................................................................................42 Agenda Setting ........................................................................................................................44 Agenda Setting and Twitter .............................................................................................45 Second-Level Agenda Setting .........................................................................................47 Framing ...................................................................................................................................48 Framing and Abortion .....................................................................................................50 Framing in Traditional Media .........................................................................................51 Framing and Twitter ........................................................................................................52 Framing, Gatewatching and Agenda Setting ...................................................................53 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................54 Research Questions .................................................................................................................55 5 3 METHODS .............................................................................................................................57 4 RESULTS ...............................................................................................................................63 R1: How Do Traditional Newspapers Differ from Twitter in Terms of Message Amplification and Agenda Setting? ....................................................................................63 R2: What Were the Most Popular and Least Popular Frames in Each of the Three Populations Analyzed (Local Newspapers, National Newspapers and Twitter)?...............69 R3: Which Medium Covers a Breaking News Event First: Local News, National News or Twitter? ...........................................................................................................................76 R4a: How Much Twitter Coverage Is Produced by 1) Companies or Organizations, 2) Journalists, 3) Activists, 4) Regular Users? ........................................................................78 R4b: Does the Amount of Coverage from Different Sets of People on Twitter Increase or Decline as the Week Goes on? .......................................................................................79 R5a: What Type of Information Are the Twitter Gatewatchers Disseminating? (Information, Statements of Opinion, Links, Images or Videos, Conversation, Call to Action)? Did This Change throughout the Week? ..............................................................80 R5b: Which Type of Information Did Each Group Share the Most? .....................................84 R6: Which Frames Were Most Popular when Judged by Retweets? Which Frames Were Most Popular when Judged by Favorites? ..........................................................................86 R7: Did the Frames Used Change in Local News, National News or on Twitter after The Catalyst Event (The Filibuster), in Total or Within Certain Groups?..........................90 5 DISCUSSION .......................................................................................................................102 R1: The Difference between Newspaper Coverage and Twitter Coverage ..........................102 R2: Popular Frames Used During Coverage of SB 5 ...........................................................105 R3: The Timing of Coverage across Local Newspapers, National Newspapers and Twitter ...............................................................................................................................106 R4, R5: The Type of Information Disseminated on Twitter throughout the Week by Different Categories of People ..........................................................................................107 R6: Messages Amplified by Retweets and Favorites ...........................................................108 R7: Frame Changes throughout the Research Period ...........................................................109 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................111 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................112 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................124 6 LIST OF TABLES Table page 4-1 Number of times an SB5 story was used in local coverage ...............................................65 4-2 Number of followers per Twitter user in sample ...............................................................67 4-3 Political and medical frames in total newspaper sample ...................................................71 4-4 Pro-abortion vs. anti-abortion frames in total newspaper sample ......................................72 4-5 Political and medical frames in local versus national coverage ........................................73 4-6 Pro and anti-abortion frames in local versus national coverage ........................................74 4-7 Frames present in Twitter coverage ...................................................................................75 4-8 Percentage of types of tweets by each user category .........................................................85 4-9 Percentage of type of tweet per group category .................................................................86 4-10 Number of