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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE
How can social movements increase their presence in the news? We argue that press releases can do so via social movement framing. Press releases from, and news coverage of, social movement organizations (SMOs) in the gun control debate serve as our case.
Methods
A qualitative framing analysis is conducted to identify frames in press releases from the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign. Logistic regressions assess the effect of frames in press releases on New York Times coverage of the gun control debate.
Results
We find that both organizations use systematic framing strategies in their press releases. Only the Brady Campaign has a significant association between specific frames in its press releases and coverage in the New York Times.
Conclusions
Press releases are viable tactics for SMOs, but biases in news media have implications for how effective press releases might be for an SMO.
Language: en |