The presidential elections of 2016 stand out in history with a massive number of scandals, intrigues, and framing. It is necessary to analyze all parties to the conflict and their actions to understand what happened. Ogan et al. (2018), in their article “Who drove the discourse? News coverage and policy framing of immigrants and refugees in the 2016 US presidential election,” try to achieve this goal. This study focuses on examining news sources and the rhetoric of politicians to find out the reasons for the formation of substantial prejudice against immigrants. Consequently, this essay aims to review this article, highlight the evidence for framing, and analyze its credibility.
The investigation in question was conducted by private individuals representing researchers from various states and countries. They do not have any direct connection with US government structures. Moreover, the final work was published in a European journal, which guarantees the authors’ independence to some extent. To conduct their research, they used content analysis from 12 major media sources, such as CNN and Fox News (Ogan et al., 2018). A large number of sources dramatically enhances the study’s academic value, credibility, and validity. As the analysis results showed, there was a vivid framing problem in the media during the election period. News outlets focused on the Clinton-Trump presidential race without going into details and using only superficial information about the refugees. This allowed people with media influence, such as Trump, to sponsor and promote the perspective they needed, portraying immigrants negatively (Ogan et al., 2018). Simultaneously, Clinton had little to no such influence and could not effectively counter the massive anti-immigration framing.
Emphasizing these details, the authors adhere to a neutral position, drawing scientific conclusions from the available data. Although the intended audience is not specified in the text, people close to the academic and journalistic fields can be considered as it. That is why the article was published in a European journal specializing in investigative communications. At the same time, they do not promote any specific ideology but emphasize the need for truthful transmission of information to society. Based on this, and considering the high quality of the study itself, it can be stated that this work is a credible source. It is devoid of biases and objectively analyzes information from many sources. Therefore, this work is a reliable academic source of information that can be relied upon for further research.
Reference
Ogan, C., Pennington, R., Venger, O., & Metz, D. (2018). Who drove the discourse? News coverage and policy framing of immigrants and refugees in the 2016 US presidential election.Communications, 43(3), 357-378.