On Wednesday, April 23, 2014, Amber E. Boydstun, who is an Assistant Professor at the University of California – Davis, presented a research project that she is working on with her colleagues Justin Gross (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Philip Resnik (University of Maryland), and Noah Smith (Carnegie Mellon University). The focus of the research project is framing, which is a central concept in political communication as well as a powerful political tool. Boydsun noted that the goal of the project is to develop a method to identify media frames within and across policy issues as well as to detect frame dynamics. Specifically, the research group is working to create a unified coding scheme for content analysis across issues, whereby issue-specific frames (e.g., innocence) are nested within high-level dimensions (or frame types) that cross-cut issues (e.g., fairness). In addition, they are developing methods for semi-automated and automated frame discovery aimed at both replicating manual coding and isolating patterns of frame evolution that might not be readily visible to human inspection. The talk was organized by the Center for American Politics and Public Policy (CAPPP) and sponsored by CCCE. Faculty and graduate students from a variety of social sciences departments attended the presentation.
