April 4-6, 2024 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Innovations in Health Communication
Innovations in Health Communication
Abstract: Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Abortion Access: Community Structure Theory, Political Partisanship, and Position in Life Cycle
A community structure analysis (Pollock, 2007, 2013, 2015) compared city characteristics and nationwide newspaper coverage of abortion access in newspapers in 28 major U.S. cities, sampling all relevant 150+ word articles from 6/27/2016 - 8/15/23. A total of 464 articles were coded for editorial “prominence” (placement, headline size, article length, presence of graphics) and “direction” (government responsibility, societal responsibility, or balanced/neutral: coverage) and then combined into each newspaper’s composite “Media Vector” (+.0.7436 to -0.0285: range = 0.7721). Twenty seven of the 28 newspapers (96%) yielded media coverage emphasizing government responsibility for abortion access.
Overall, two major demographic patterns emerged. First, a “political partisanship” pattern was found, associating measures of political affiliation with media coverage of abortion access. Cities with higher percentages of Democratic voters were linked with media coverage emphasizing less government responsibility for abortion access (r = -0.337, p = 0.040). By contrast, cities with higher percentages of Republican voters were connected with media coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for abortion access (r = 0.333, p = 0.042).
These findings depart from previous research which found higher percentages of Democratic voters in a city were linked to more favorable coverage of state and local COVID-19 quarantine responses and the opposite pattern for Republican voters (Amarosa, et al., 2021; Crowley, et al., 2021). Although government responsibility for science-based responses to the Covid pandemic was considered a “progressive” perspective, in the Supreme Court’s post-Dobbs environment, government responsibility for abortion access is often associated with “regressive” perspectives.
In addition to political partisanship, a measure of “position in life-cycle” was also directionally associated with coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for abortion access. The higher the percentage of families with children ages 6 to 12 in a city, the greater the directional media emphasis on government responsibility for abortion access (r = 0.298, p = 0.070). This finding corresponds with previous research finding that the higher the percentage of families with young children 6-12, the more media emphasis on government responsibility for campus suicide prevention (Swartz et al., 2016). Regression analysis revealed that percent voting Republican (10.6% of the variance) and families with young children (4.8%) collectively accounted for 15.4% of the variance associated with coverage supporting government responsibility for abortion access.
Media coverage emphasizing more governmental responsibility for abortion access confirms it as a national issue linked with political partisanship and position in life-cycle. Methodologically, combining measures of both “prominence” and “direction,” highly sensitive Media Vectors highlighted the capacity of media to reflect community measures of “political partisanship” and “position in life-cycle.” Theoretically, emphasizing the influence of local demographics, community structure theory complements agenda-setting theory at the national level, reconfirming the findings of an original founder of agenda-setting (Funk & McCombs, 2015), that both nationally prominent newspapers (agenda setting) and local community characteristics/concerns (community structure) can affect coverage of critical local issues.
Overall, two major demographic patterns emerged. First, a “political partisanship” pattern was found, associating measures of political affiliation with media coverage of abortion access. Cities with higher percentages of Democratic voters were linked with media coverage emphasizing less government responsibility for abortion access (r = -0.337, p = 0.040). By contrast, cities with higher percentages of Republican voters were connected with media coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for abortion access (r = 0.333, p = 0.042).
These findings depart from previous research which found higher percentages of Democratic voters in a city were linked to more favorable coverage of state and local COVID-19 quarantine responses and the opposite pattern for Republican voters (Amarosa, et al., 2021; Crowley, et al., 2021). Although government responsibility for science-based responses to the Covid pandemic was considered a “progressive” perspective, in the Supreme Court’s post-Dobbs environment, government responsibility for abortion access is often associated with “regressive” perspectives.
In addition to political partisanship, a measure of “position in life-cycle” was also directionally associated with coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for abortion access. The higher the percentage of families with children ages 6 to 12 in a city, the greater the directional media emphasis on government responsibility for abortion access (r = 0.298, p = 0.070). This finding corresponds with previous research finding that the higher the percentage of families with young children 6-12, the more media emphasis on government responsibility for campus suicide prevention (Swartz et al., 2016). Regression analysis revealed that percent voting Republican (10.6% of the variance) and families with young children (4.8%) collectively accounted for 15.4% of the variance associated with coverage supporting government responsibility for abortion access.
Media coverage emphasizing more governmental responsibility for abortion access confirms it as a national issue linked with political partisanship and position in life-cycle. Methodologically, combining measures of both “prominence” and “direction,” highly sensitive Media Vectors highlighted the capacity of media to reflect community measures of “political partisanship” and “position in life-cycle.” Theoretically, emphasizing the influence of local demographics, community structure theory complements agenda-setting theory at the national level, reconfirming the findings of an original founder of agenda-setting (Funk & McCombs, 2015), that both nationally prominent newspapers (agenda setting) and local community characteristics/concerns (community structure) can affect coverage of critical local issues.