Frame theory and political behavior by candidates, national media and voters in the 2000 primary election

Presidential primary elections in the United States are supported by three legs of a behavioral stool: voters, candidates and their campaigns, and information media. Each of these legs views the others through prisms of their own constructed realities while they perform their unique functions. The interplay of these behaviors eventually results in the selection of candidates to compete at the subsequent November general election.;Reams of paper will be written about the behaviors of these three legs in the historic, controversial and unprecedented 2000 general election. In many ways, however, selection of candidates during the truncated 2000 primary season is interesting, important and useful to study in the context of the still-emerging Frame Theory of Mass Communications. Frame Theory is one way to explain and understand the complicated processes by which candidates appealed and appeal to voters; how voters decided which candidate to support; and the extent the behavior of users of "New" and Old Media impacted the election. This dissertation expands and builds upon that theory by extending research to the actions of political campaigns, as well as the national media. In the process, several classic theories of mass communications, some given brief mention or ignored entirely by current introductory political science texts, are revisited and re-examined in light of Frame Theory. While this dissertation was influenced most directly by literature from the disciplines of political science and mass communication, this effort most directly impacts the study areas of political communications; political behavior; mass media uses and gratifications; New Media studies; and presidential campaigns.