Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2012

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Political Science

Committee Chair

Gainous, Jason

Author's Keywords

Ethnocentrism; Media framing; Ethnocentric framing; Ethnocentrism across race; Support for war; Muslims

Subject

Ethnocentrism; Mass media--Social aspects; Social problems--Press coverage; Mass media and public opinion; Mass media and race relations

Abstract

This study revisits Kinder's and Kam's (2007; 2009) studies that provided political scientists with a theoretical and operational definition of ethnocentrism-our tendency to partition the world into in-groups and out-groups. They assert that the activation of ethnocentrism hinges on elite framing and issue-attention. In addition, they have shown whites to be more ethnocentric than blacks, generally. This thesis begins with, and after conducting a framing experiment, accepts the hypothesis that the media frame news ethnocentrically and that frames have a greater effect on activating ethnocentrism, fear, and support for war across white Americans than black Americans. Furthermore, my empirical analysis of ethnocentrism's effects on support for war, across race and over time, demonstrates that ethnocentrism is significant in driving support for war (across white individuals) at its onset, but I suggest that ethnocentric considerations are supplanted over time by considerations of the costs, implications of war, and decreasing interest.

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