Tax -supported school vouchers: A framing analysis of Ohio education reform

Framing effects have become a popular method to understand how the structure of a message influences public opinion and decision making. A media frame reports an issue, idea, or event of public significance in a manner calculated for a particular effect. Two newer veins of framing research assert first, that a discursive community requires a relationship between the individual making decisions and the broader discussion occurring within the community, and second, the role of values in determining individual responses to frames. This study incorporates these newer applications of framing theory into a public opinion survey of black and white community members in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area concerning the controversy of tax-supported school vouchers.;Major issues were located within legal literature. Content analysis of two local newspapers was conducted over five and one-half years, locating the legal issues as frames in the newspapers. Five framing questions were added to a public opinion poll conducted by the Center for Survey Research at Ohio State University. These questions were asked within one of five value contexts, to determine the value's effect on public opinion according to race.;Results indicate that there is a significant effect on public opinion concerning tax-supported school vouchers according to race, but not according to value context. Black respondents support tax-supported school vouchers upon hearing the equal opportunity frame, but oppose vouchers upon hearing the community action frame. The First Amendment frame and the Competition frame did not produce a significant difference between races.;This study reinforces previous research claiming that news frames affect public opinion. Value contexts did not influence acceptance or rejection of a frame concerning school vouchers. It is suggested that the inherent value within each frame was culturally strong enough to negate the attempt to manipulate the value context with an introductory frame statement.;Future research could isolate value contexts that are inherent already within the news frames and measure whether they influence how individuals respond to a concept overall. Continuing to attempt to isolate the frame's value effect would increase understanding of how frames successfully affect public opinion.