ABSTRACT
Traditional research on framing has focused primarily on clarifying and redefi ning its conceptualization (Entman, 1993; Gamson, 1989; Pan & Kosicki, 1993; Scheufele, 1999) and on rigorous empirical tests of media frames as independent variables that elicit subsequent effects on cognition and affect (Akhavan-Majid & Ramaprasad, 1998; Iyengar & Simon, 1993). However, research on media framing as a dependent variable is relatively rare and indeed has been singled out as an area of study that merits further empirical investigation (Scheufele, 1999). Scheufele (1999) argues that although “many researchers have examined extrinsic and intrinsic factors infl uencing the production and selection of news” (p. 109), no empirical evidence has been collected about specifi c factors that lead to corresponding media frames. In particular, contextual (extrinsic) factors-such as political or economic conditions and press freedom-have been shown to infl uence news content, but not news frames.
