University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations Spring 2019 “Philosophical Treatises on Life and Death”:Newspaper Coverage of a Controversial Brain Death Case Khadija Ejaz Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Ejaz, K.(2019). “Philosophical Treatises on Life and Death”:Newspaper Coverage of a Controversial Brain Death Case. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/5122 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISES ON LIFE AND DEATH ”: NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF A CONTROVERSIAL BRAIN DEATH CASE by Khadija Ejaz Bachelor of Science Oklahoma State University, 2003 Master of Science Oklahoma State University, 2005 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mass Communications College of Information and Communications University of South Carolina 2019 Accepted by: Leigh M. Moscowitz, Major Professor Daniela B. Friedman, Committee Member Kenneth Campbell, Committee Member Robert K. McKeever, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Khadija Ejaz, 2019 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION To the past five years that forced me to trust that little voice within for science and follow it again and again and again. That is not how women are raised. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My dissertation was a stage, and many actors played a part in that production. The lead role was played by my spouse Sonal Mehta who first told me about Jahi McMath. I continue to learn about the world and about myself from him constantly. I am also indebted to my committee for helping me birth this project. Dr. Leigh Moscowitz, thank you for accepting the job offer here and agreeing to let me be your graduate assistant. Thank you for staying through the crises you faced with your homes. Thank you to Dr. Robert McKeever for your encouragement. Thank you, Dr. Kenneth Campbell, for showing me that it possible to be kind and have a career. And thank you, Dr. Daniela Friedman, for always being so quick with emails! I also want to thank Sandra Hughes and Camea Cato for helping me navigate the back-breaking byzantine details of the dissertation process. I am also grateful for my colleagues Kelli Boling and Noura Al Duaijani who analyzed some of my data with me and Denetra Walker who pre-tested my interview guides for me. My interviewees always surprised me with their sincerity and generosity. I thank them for bothering with a project sight unseen for nothing in return. But most of all, I cannot forget the McMaths and their daughter whose lives formed the foundation for my project. I would rather that Jahi had not died and that her loved ones had not gone through any of the things they are still dealing with. I always tried to remember that somewhere underneath all this science were real people. iv ABSTRACT The central concern of this multi-method research project was to investigate newspaper coverage of the controversial brain death case of Jahi McMath. This represents the first study of sense-making of the case in the news media, positioning it at the intersection of science communication and critical qualitative inquiry. First, framing theory was used to guide a textual analysis of 81 newspaper articles from high-circulation newspapers in California. This revealed four frames that first created uncertainty about brain death, thereby permitting two competing frames of Jahi being alive and also being dead to co-exist before merging into a frame that further lay blame for the confusion on science itself. These findings were then used to inform in-depth interviews with two groups of people: the journalists who had written these news articles, and the experts who had been quoted in those articles. Their responses provided insight into the factors that influenced the creation of the previously identified frames – the involvement of multiple journalists, the dynamic of conflict, financial and professional pressures, outside influences, suspicions of racial and economic oppression, and a perception of scientific disagreement about brain death. The interviews also allowed experts to weigh in on the coverage and gave both experts and journalists a chance to describe their relationship with each other in this case. Experts did not all agree about the newsworthiness of the story, perceived the coverage as haphazard, and discussed the impact of the story on expertise. Experts and journalists also expressed asymmetrical need of and satisfaction with each other but remained aware of their relationship. These findings are important v because they highlight the effect that the coverage of complex scientific concepts such as death has on the communication of science and its status in a society mounting increasing resistance to expertise and journalism. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Abstract ................................................................................................................................v List of Figures ......................................................................................................................x Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................1 1.1 How Jahi McMath died…twice ...........................................................................7 1.2 What does it mean to die? ..................................................................................10 1.3 Brain death in the modern world ........................................................................15 1.4 Scientific controversies in the media .................................................................21 1.5 Overview of research questions and methodological approaches ......................26 1.6 Outline of dissertation ........................................................................................34 Chapter 2: Methodology ....................................................................................................36 2.1 Rationale for qualitative research design ...........................................................37 2.2 Rationale for critical cultural research ...............................................................39 2.3 Reflexivity in the research process .....................................................................41 2.4 Overview of research design ..............................................................................43 2.5 Ethical considerations ........................................................................................44 2.6 IRB approval ......................................................................................................45 2.7 Data collection methods .....................................................................................45 vii 2.8 Methods for data analysis and synthesis ............................................................51 2.9 Limitations .........................................................................................................55 Chapter 3: Framing: text and process ................................................................................58 3.1 Framing theory ...................................................................................................59 3.2 Frames in newspaper articles .............................................................................67 3.3 The larger framing process ...............................................................................103 3.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................................125 Chapter 4: The science in the story: experts and journalists ............................................134 4.1 A history of science and the media ..................................................................136 4.2 News coverage of science ................................................................................140 4.3 The expert perspective on newspaper coverage of the Jahi McMath case .......146 4.4 The expert-journalist relationship in the Jahi McMath case ............................158 4.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................173 Chapter 5: Discussion ......................................................................................................177 5.1 A panic about power ........................................................................................179 5.2 Application of findings .....................................................................................185 5.3 Limitations .......................................................................................................187 5.4 Future directions for research ...........................................................................188 References ........................................................................................................................191