Contemporary journalism scholars have taken important steps to identify and categorize emerging styles of news programing in the 21st Century (Entman, 2004; Holbert, 2005; Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010). This study exp...Contemporary journalism scholars have taken important steps to identify and categorize emerging styles of news programing in the 21st Century (Entman, 2004; Holbert, 2005; Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010). This study explores how soft news programs function in agenda setting processes and contribute to the sociological framing of political issues. It compares news agenda topics and frames between ABC Worm News with Charles Gibson and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart over the months prior to the determination of the Democrat and Republican 2008 presidential nominees. Results show that both programs contained similar amounts of top stories, main actors, and story problems, confirming similar agenda setting functions. Framing comparisons showed that in election coverage ABC Worm News had significantly more strategy frames than The Daily Show. The Daily Show contained significantly more responsibility and morality frames than ABC Worm News, providing an ethical viewpoint. These findings reveal that the news programs are similar in coverage of the top stories on each day's agenda, but that they are presented differently through framing decisions. This provides insight into agenda setting of election topics and highlights the potential for framing effects in different genres of journalism as the soft news frontier expands traditional definitions of political journalism.展开更多
文摘Contemporary journalism scholars have taken important steps to identify and categorize emerging styles of news programing in the 21st Century (Entman, 2004; Holbert, 2005; Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010). This study explores how soft news programs function in agenda setting processes and contribute to the sociological framing of political issues. It compares news agenda topics and frames between ABC Worm News with Charles Gibson and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart over the months prior to the determination of the Democrat and Republican 2008 presidential nominees. Results show that both programs contained similar amounts of top stories, main actors, and story problems, confirming similar agenda setting functions. Framing comparisons showed that in election coverage ABC Worm News had significantly more strategy frames than The Daily Show. The Daily Show contained significantly more responsibility and morality frames than ABC Worm News, providing an ethical viewpoint. These findings reveal that the news programs are similar in coverage of the top stories on each day's agenda, but that they are presented differently through framing decisions. This provides insight into agenda setting of election topics and highlights the potential for framing effects in different genres of journalism as the soft news frontier expands traditional definitions of political journalism.