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The Social Science Journal 47 (2010) 630–645
Morality or equality? Ideological framing in news
coverage of gay marriage legitimization
Po-Lin Pan a,∗ , Juan Meng b , Shuhua Zhou c
a
Department of Radio-Television, College of Communications, Arkansas State University,
P.O. Box 2160, State University, AR 72467, USA
b
Department of Communication, The University of Dayton, USA
c
Department of Telecommunication and Film, The University of Alabama, USA
Received 18 June 2009; received in revised form 17 January 2010; accepted 1 February 2010
Abstract
This content analytic study investigated the approaches of two mainstream newspapers—The New
York Times and the Chicago Tribune—to cover the gay marriage issue. The study used the Massachusetts
legitimization of gay marriage as a dividing point to look at what kinds of specific political or social
topics related to gay marriage were highlighted in the news media. The study examined how news
sources were framed in the coverage of gay marriage, based upon the newspapers’ perspectives and
ideologies. The results indicated that The New York Times was inclined to emphasize the topic of human
equality related to the legitimization of gay marriage. After the legitimization, The New York Times
became an activist for gay marriage. Alternatively, the Chicago Tribune highlighted the importance of
human morality associated with the gay marriage debate. The perspective of the Chicago Tribune was
not dramatically influenced by the legitimization. It reported on gay marriage in terms of defending
American traditions and family values both before and after the gay marriage legitimization.
Published by Elsevier Inc on behalf of Western Social Science Association.
Gay marriage has been a controversial issue in the United States, especially since the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court officially authorized it. Although the practice has been
widely discussed for several years, the acceptance of gay marriage does not seem to be concordant with mainstream American values. This is in part because gay marriage challenges
the traditional value of the family institution. In the United States, people’s perspectives of
and attitudes toward gay marriage have been mostly polarized. Many people optimistically
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (P.-L. Pan).
0362-3319/$ – see front matter. Published by Elsevier Inc on behalf of Western Social Science Association.
doi:10.1016/j.soscij.2010.02.002
P.-L. Pan et al. / The Social Science Journal 47 (2010) 630–645
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support gay legal rights and attempt to legalize it in as many states as possible, while others
believe legalizing homosexuality may endanger American society and moral values. A number of forces and factors may expand this divergence between the two polarized perspectives,
including family, religion and social influences. Mass media have a significant influence on
socialization that cultivates individual’s belief about the world as well as affects individual’s
values on social issues (Comstock & Paik, 1991). Moreover, news media outlets become a
strong factor in influencing people’s perceptions of and attitudes toward gay men and lesbians
because the news is one of the most powerful media to influence people’s attitudes toward gay
marriage (Anderson, Fakhfakh, & Kondylis, 1999). Some mainstream newspapers are considered as media elites (Lichter, Rothman, & Lichter, 1986). Furthermore, numerous studies
have demonstrated that mainstream newspapers would produce more powerful influences on
people’s perceptions of public policies and political issues than television news (e.g., Brians
& Wattenberg, 1996; Druckman, 2005; Eveland, Seo, & Marton, 2002)
Gay marriage legitimization, a specific, divisive issue in the political and social dimensions,
is concerned with several political and social issues that have raised fundamental questions
about Constitutional amendments, equal rights, and American family values. The role of news
media becomes relatively important while reporting these public debates over gay marriage,
because not only do the news media affect people’s attitudes toward gays and lesbians by
positively or negatively reporting the gay and lesbian issue, but also shape people’s perspectives
of the same-sex marriage policy by framing the recognition of gay marriage in the news
coverage. The purpose of this study is designed to examine how gay marriage news is described
in the news coverage of The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune based upon their divisive
ideological framings.
1. Literature review
1.1. Homosexual news coverage over time
Until the 1940s, news media basically ignored the homosexual issue in the United States
(Alwood, 1996; Bennett, 1998). According to Bennett (1998), of the 356 news stories about
gays and lesbians that appeared in Time and Newsweek from 1947 to 1997, the Kinsey report
on male sexuality published in 1948 was the first to draw reporters to the subject of homosexuality. From the 1940s to 1950s, the homosexual issue was reported as a social problem.
Approximately 60% of the articles described homosexuals as a direct threat to the strength of
the U.S. military, the security of the U.S. government, and the safety of ordinary Americans
during this period. By the 1960s, the gay and lesbian issue began to be discussed openly in
the news media. However, these portrayals were covered in the context of crime stories and
brief items that ridiculed effeminate men or masculine women (Miller, 1991; Streitmatter,
1993).
In 1963, a cover story, “Let’s Push Homophile Marriage,” was the first to treat gay marriage
as a matter of winning legal recognition (Stewart-Winter, 2006). However, this cover story
did not cause people to pay positive attention to gay marriage, but raised national debates
between punishment and pity of homosexuals. Specifically speaking, although numerous arti-
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cles reported before the 1960s provided growing visibility for homosexuals, they were still
highly critical of them (Bennett, 1998).
In September 1967, the first hard-hitting gay newspaper—the Los Angeles Advocate—began
publication. Different from other earlier gay and lesbian publications, its editorial mix consisted
entirely of non-fiction materials, including news stories, editorials, and columns (Cruikshank,
1992; Streitmatter, 1993). The Advocate was the first gay publication to operate as an independent business financed entirely by advertising and circulation, rather than by subsidies from a
membership organization (Streitmatter, 1995a, 1995b).
After the Stonewall Rebellion in June 1969 in New York City ignited the modern phase of
the gay and lesbian liberation movement, the number and circulation of the gay and lesbian
press exploded (Streitmatter, 1998). Therefore, gay rights were discussed in the news media
during the early 1970s. Homosexuals began to organize a series of political actions associated
with gay rights, which was widely covered by the news media, while a backlash also appeared
against the gay-rights movements, particularly among fundamentalist Christians (Alwood,
1996; Bennett, 1998). Later in the 1970s, the genre entered a less political phrase by exploring
the dimensions of the developing culture of gay and lesbian. The news media plumbed the
breadth and depth of topics ranging from the gay and lesbian sensibility in art and literature
to sex, spirituality, personal appearance, dyke separatism, lesbian mothers, drag queen, leather
men, and gay bathhouses (Streitmatter, 1995b).
In the 1980s, the gay and lesbian issue confronted a most formidable enemy when AIDS/HIV,
one of the most devastating diseases in the history of medicine, began killing gay men at an
alarming rate. Accordingly, AIDS/HIV became the biggest gay story reported by the news
media. Numerous news media outlets linked the AIDS/HIV epidemic with homosexuals, which
implied the notion of the promiscuous gay and lesbian lifestyle. The gays and lesbians, therefore, were described as a dangerous minority in the news media during the 1980s (Altman,
1986; Cassidy, 2000).
In the 1990s, issues about the growing visibility of gays and lesbians and their campaign for
equal rights were frequently covered in the news media, primarily because of AIDS and the
debate over whether the ban on gays in the military should be lifted. The increasing visibility
of gay people resulted in the emergence of lifestyle magazines (Bennett, 1998; Streitmatter,
1998). The Out, a lifestyle magazine based in New York City but circulated nationally, led the
new phase, since its upscale design and fashion helped attract mainstream advertisers. This
magazine, which devalued news in favor of stories on entertainment and fashions, became the
first gay and lesbian publication sold in mainstream bookstores and featured on the front page
of The New York Times (Streitmatter, 1998).
From the late 1990s to the first few years of the 2000s, homosexuals were described as a threat
to children’s development as well as a danger to family values in the news media. The legitimacy
of same-sex marriage began to be discussed, because news coverage dominated the issue of
same-sex marriage more frequently than before (Bennett, 1998). According to Gibson (2004),
The New York Times first announced in August 2002 that its Sunday Styles section would begin
publishing reports of same-sex commitment ceremonies along with the traditional heterosexual
wedding announcements. Moreover, many newspapers joined this trend. Gibson (2004) found
that not only the national newspapers, such as The New York Times, but also other regional
newspapers, such as the Houston Chronicle and the Seattle Times, reported surprisingly large
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number of news stories about the everyday lives of gays and lesbians, especially since the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in November 2003 that same-sex couples had the
same right to marry as heterosexuals.
Previous studies investigated the increased amount of news coverage of gay and lesbian
issues in the past six decades, but they did not analyze how homosexuals are framed in the
news media in terms of public debates on the gay marriage issue. These studies failed to
examine how newspapers report this national debate on gay marriage as well as what kinds of
news frames are used in reporting this controversial issue.
1.2. Framing gay and lesbian partnerships
Framing is particularly useful in understanding the media’s role in political lives, but its
origins can be traced to a general perspective that is termed as social constructivism (Entman,
1993; Reese, 2003; Scheufele, 1999). According to Price, Nir, and Cappella (2005), media
recipients can be viewed as active audiences in interpreting and discussing public events, but
they rely on the mass media to provide common frames of references that guide interpretation
and discussion. The idea of framing is closely aligned with the concept of a schema. According
to Price et al. (2005), a frame is a package of associated ideas that guides people’s attention,
comprehension, storage, and information retrieval. Frames evolve out of collective efforts
to make sense of social problems and help people locate, perceive, identify, and label their
experiences of social events. Through exposure to the different courses of public debate framed
in the mass media, people on the different sides of the public debate understand it differently,
focus on different aspects of social problems, decide which value to connect to a specific issue,
and actively shape their perspectives on the debate in terms of an abstract value (Brewer, 2002;
Kindler & Sanders, 1996; Nelson, Clawson, & Oxley, 1997; Price et al., 2005).
Previous studies indicated that issues surrounding gay rights have been controversial for
several decades. Since the 2000 presidential election campaign, the question of whether gay
and lesbian partnerships should be granted the same legal status as heterosexual marriages has
received more coverage than before (Price et al., 2005). Following George Bush’s election to the
presidency, the controversies over gay marriage continued, highlighted by the Massachusetts
Supreme Court ruling in 2003 that same-sex couples were legally entitled to marriage rights
under that state’s constitution. Consequently, the U.S. Congress began debating a constitutional
ban on gay marriage that was supported by President Bush.
The bulk of studies found that the news coverage of the legal standing of gay marriage is
framed in terms of two core values: morality and equality (e.g., Brewer, 2002, 2003; Gallagher
& Bull, 1996; Rimmerman, Kenneth, & Wilcox, 2000). These studies demonstrated that the
news coverage focuses on equal rights commonly invoked by gay activists. The news coverage
frames gay activists as those who intend to obtain full marital status for same-sex partnerships
because marriages are involved in both religious and legal standing. According to Brewer
(2002), these gay and lesbian activists are inclined to constitute a politically powerful minority
group. Their goal is to attain full social acceptance of homosexuality by using the legal system
to reinforce their view of morality. By contrast, opponents strive to frame the matter in terms
of “traditional moral values,” emphasizing that legally granting the martial status for samesex partnerships may cause problems to the long-standing social and religious institutions of
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marriage and family. Further, most opponents of gay rights are inclined to use “gay civil unions”
rather than “gay marriage” in describing gay and lesbian partnerships. The two kinds of frames
that concern the two core values most frequently appear in the news coverage of gay marriage,
especially during the presidential campaign in the fall of 2000 (Price et al., 2005). It is evidence
that whereas opponents of gay rights emphasize morals and family values, supporters highlight
equality as a basic value, and counter that hate is not one of the family values.
The current study examines whether the debates over the gay marriage legitimization are
framed by news organizational ideologies in terms of equal rights versus morality. Furthermore, it explores how functional relationships between the gay marriage issue and other
political or social issues are ideologically framed and investigates the most frequently used
news sources in the news coverage of gay marriage as well as the changes in the reporting
patterns of gay marriage news during gay marriage legitimization in the state of Massachusetts.
Moreover, it is important to specifically investigate the ideological framing of two influential newspapers—The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune—on the gay marriage issue,
because they are two leading national newspapers in the United States. The study applies
ideological differences between Liberalism and Conservatism to examine how gay marriage
legitimization is framed by two national newspapers. According to Kerlinger (1984), Liberalism as a set of political, economic, religious, and other social beliefs that emphasizes freedom
of the individual, constitutional participatory government and democracy, the rule of law,
free negotiation, discussion and tolerance of different views, constructive social progress and
change, egalitarianism and the rights of minorities, secular and rational approaches to social
problems, and positive government action to remedy social deficiencies and to improve human
welfare. By contrast, Conservatism is viewed as a set of political, economic, religious, and
other social beliefs characterized by emphasis on the status quo and social stability, religion
and morality, liberty and freedom, the nature of inequality of human beings, self-discipline
and sanctity, the uncertainty of progress, obedience to authority, and the weakness of human
reason. The ideologies can reflect differences between The New York Times and the Chicago
Tribune. The bulk of studies have indicated that The New York Times is inclined to employ a
liberal tone to frame political and social issues (e.g., Angela & Frederick, 1994; Lichter et al.,
1986; Ju, 2005). On the other hand, the Chicago Tribune has been considered as a conservative
newspaper (Gallagher, 1998). According to Fraley and Lester-Roushanzamir (2004), by using
sources, reliance on police reports, and official statements, the Chicago Tribune’s reporting
encouraged the development of a moral panic when fundamental beliefs and institutions were
challenged. Therefore, the ideological differences that exist in these two national newspapers
can be conceptually applied in this study in order to identify the controversial characteristics
of the gay marriage issue. In this vein, four research questions and three hypotheses were
proposed in this study:
RQ1: Are some specific topics related to gay marriage, such as the Constitution amendments
banning gay marriage, equal human rights, American traditions and family institution,
and adoption policy for gay and lesbian couples, evenly covered in The New York
Times and the Chicago Tribune?
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RQ2: Is there an increased number of pro-gay marriage people and homosexuals cited by
the two newspapers after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court authorized the
license of gay marriage?
RQ3: What types of news sources are more frequently used by the two newspapers before
and after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court legitimized gay marriage?
To investigate the ideological perspectives of The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune
on the public debate over gay marriage, two hypotheses are also proposed in the following:
H1: The New York Times prefers to use liberal sources, whereas the Chicago Tribune
employs relatively conservative sources in its news stories, especially after gay and
lesbian couples receive legal marital status in the state of Massachusetts.
H2: The New York Times frames the gay marriage stories in a positive way, whereas the
Chicago Tribune used a negative tone to report the gay marriage stories.
Finally, one research question is also formed to examine the general changes of the reporting
patterns in the two newspapers:
RQ4: Are the patterns of reporting the gay marriage news in the two national newspapers
changed during the period of gay marriage legitimization?
2. Methods
2.1. Sampling design
A content analysis was conducted in this study. Gay marriage news stories published in
The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune between November 18, 2002, and November
18, 2004, were the sampling frame in this study. The reason for selecting the time period was
because on November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts commonwealth officially authorized gay
marriage, and that day was considered a landmark day in gay-rights history in the United
States. Therefore, the news stories published within one year before and after gay marriage
legitimization would enhance the representativeness of gay marriage-related news stories in
this study.
By using November 18, 2003, as the watershed, the time period under investigation was
divided into four sections in two periods. In the first period, November 18, 2002, to November
18, 2003, the first section included 91 news stories related to gay marriage identified in The
New York Times, and the second section contained 128 in the Chicago Tribune. Because of
the legitimization of gay marriage on November 18, 2003 and the United States presidential
election held on November 2, 2004, the gay marriage topic was frequently discussed in the two
mainstream newspapers. Therefore, the sample size in the second period was much larger than
that in the first period. Specifically, in the second period, November 18, 2003, to November
18, 2004, the third section covered 712 news stories related to gay marriage in The New York
Times and the fourth section included 596 in the Chicago Tribune.
To increase the validity of sampling, systematic sampling strategy was used for the generation of samples. Systematic sampling is one of probability sampling designs. Probability
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sampling, can predict which population the sample may be generalized to as well as the limits
of generalizability (Singleton & Straits, 2009). According to Riffe, Lacy, and Gico (2005),
systematic sampling involved selecting every nth unit—skip interval—from a sampling frame.
The skip interval was determined by dividing the sampling frame size by the sample size.
Since the sampling frame size of The New York Times was different from that of the Chicago
Tribune and the sampling frame size of the first period was also different from that of the second period, the skip intervals would be calculated as different in four sections. We attempted
to sample an equal number of news coverage in each section for the later statistical analysis.
Specifically, 30 news stories were expected to be systematically selected in each section by
using different skip intervals. In the first period, the skip intervals were three for The New
York Times and four for the Chicago Tribune, representing that every third and fourth story
in all of the news stories in the first period were sampled. Consequently, in the first period,
30 news stories were selected from The New York Times and 32 from the Chicago Tribune.
The same sampling strategy was used for the second period. However, since the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court officially authorized gay marriage and the focus of the presidential
election of 2004 on the public debate over the gay marriage legitimization increased the number of the gay marriage news in the second period, the skip intervals used in this period were
larger than those in the first period. The skip intervals in the second period were 24 for The
New York Times and 20 for the Chicago Tribune, representing that every 24th and 20th story
in all of the news stories in the second period were sampled. That is, 29 news stories were
generated from both newspapers. To put it simply, a total of 120 news stories were coded
in this study, with a separation of 59 news stories in The New York Times and 61 in the
Chicago Tribune.
2.2. Coding categories
A wide range of topics associated with the same-sex marriage issue was developed to
describe the recognition of gay and lesbian couples addressed by a news story, including
the story type, story source, location of news stories, news approach, news value, framing
type of news stories, relational space, ideology of news source orientation, description of gay
and lesbian partnerships, and characteristics of persons appeared in news stories, in order to
examine the news perspectives of gay marriage. The main coding categories were listed in the
following:
Topic associated with gay marriage was coded so as to look at whether specific political or
social issues were highlighted as well as which topics were intentionally linked with gay marriage. The topics that were coded included: Constitutional amendment, human right, adoption
of laws or policy, AIDS epidemic, American values, traditions and family institution, religious
disciplinary, workplace or job discrimination, sexual crime or violence, military service, and
other.
News approach to the gay marriage issue was coded so as to look at what kind of function
was represented in news stories, including the presentation of information, the expression of
opinion, or other.
News tone was coded to examine the perspectives of news stories were positive, negative,
balanced, or neutral on gay marriage or other topics associated with gay marriage.
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637
Framing types of news story represented how news stories were framed in terms of empathy, distance, or other. This category attempted to investigate whether the reporters would be
sympathized with the gays and lesbians in news stories and be emotionally involved with gay
marriage while reporting the gay marriage stories. If not, the category wanted to examine
whether the reporters would use an objective approach while they described the gay marriage
stories.
Relational space was aimed at examining what kinds of sources were cited as well as
whose voices were provided in news stories. This category contained official-speaking people,
unofficial-speaking people (elite or ordinary), official written documents, unofficial documents
(e.g., elite, ordinary, or others). More specifically, official-speaking people were those who
served for the governmental institutions (e.g., president, mayors, state governances, senators,
or officials). Elites were those opinion leaders who did not serve for the government (e.g.,
professors, scholars, or professionals in some specific areas). Otherwise, ordinary people were
those who were not opinion leaders as well as did not serve for the governmental institutions.
Ideology of source orientation was coded to explore the position of news sources on gay
rights. In general, people who held conservative ideologies were represented to protect American values and traditions. By contrast, liberals were described as those who were open-minded
to defend gay rights.
Persons who appeared and made some statements or comments in news stories were coded
to examine their characteristics and their perspectives of gay marriage based upon whether
their statements were for or against gay marriage legitimization or which political party they
belonged to. This category was aimed at examining who was more frequently reported by news
in the public debate over gay marriage.
2.3. Inter-coder reliability
Two graduate assistants coded the materials in this content analysis. One coded all news
stories from the sample, and the other coded 30 news stories randomly selected, approximately
25% of sampling. Scott’s pi generalized formula (1955) was used to calculate the inter-coder
agreement on each coding category. The overall reliability of Scott’s pi value was about .87.
Specific reliability for each variable is in the following: .96 for story location, .93 for story
source, .83 for story type, .91 for topic associated with gay marriage, .84 for news approach,
.86 for news tone; .86 for framing type of news story, .88 for relational space, .83 for ideologies
of source orientation, .84 for description of gay and lesbian partnerships, and .87 for persons
who appeared and made statements in news stories.
3. Results
RQ1 was designed to find the differences between The New York Times and the Chicago
Tribune in terms of topics related to gay marriage. As indicated in Table 1, although the
proportions of different topics in the two newspapers were slightly different, four major topics
were heavily exposed in both newspapers: Constitutional amendment (26.6% for The New
York Times and 27.2% for the Chicago Tribune), equal rights (33.6% and 19.1% separately),
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Table 1
Topics associated with gay marriage in The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.
Topics
New York Times (%)
Constitutional amendment
Equal rights
Adoption law/policy
AIDS epidemic
American tradition and family values
Religious disciplinary
Workplace discrimination
Sexual crime/violence
Chicago Tribune (%)
26.6
33.6
7.7
0.7
17.5
11.9
2.0
0
Total
27.2
19.1
7.4
1.2
22.2
19.8
1.9
1.2
100
100
American tradition and family values (17.5% and 22.2% separately), and religious disciplinary
(11.9% and 19.8% separately). More specifically, among the four top topics, Constitutional
amendment was more frequently reported. However, more topics about equal rights were
identified in The New York Times (33.6%), compared with the Chicago Tribune (19.1%). By
contrast, the topics concerning American tradition and family values and religious disciplinary
were presented less in The New York Times (17.5% and 11.9% separately) than in the Chicago
Tribune (22.2% and 19.8% separately). Other topics associated with gay marriage, such as
AIDS epidemic, workplace discrimination, sexual crime, etc., received less attention.
RQ2 examined how many people who were pro-gay or anti-gay marriage cited in The New
York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Table 2 indicated the percentage of people cited in the
news coverage based on their attitudes toward gay marriage. According to the results, a total of
186 people representing their perspectives of gay marriage were cited in The New York Times.
Before gay marriage legitimatization 11.8% pro-gay marriage people and 5.4% homosexuals
were reported in The New York Times. On the other hand, after the legitimization 45.6% pro-gay
marriage people and 20% homosexuals were identified in the news coverage. Statistically, there
was a visible increased number of people who supported gay marriage covered in The New
Table 2
Coverage of People’s attitudes toward gay marriage before and after its legitimization.
Attitude toward gay marriage
New York Times
Freq.
Before legitimization
Number of homosexualsa
Number of pro-gay marriage people
Number of anti-gay marriage people
After legitimization
Number of homosexualsa
Number of pro-gay marriage people
Number of anti-gay marriage people
Total
a
Chicago Tribune
%
Freq.
%
10
22
10
5.4
11.8
5.4
11
12
24
10.0
10.9
21.8
37
85
22
20.0
45.6
11.8
13
21
29
11.8
19.1
26.4
186
100
110
100
Homosexuals are only those who have been clearly identified as gays or lesbians or open with their sexual
orientation by themselves in news coverage.
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639
Table 3
Types of sources used in two newspapers before and after gay marriage legitimization.
Types of sources
Official speaking
Elite speaking
Ordinary people speaking
Official written
Elite written
Ordinary people written
∗
∗∗
New York Times
Chicago Tribune
Before (%)
After (%)
**
**
15.7
25.5
29.4
13.7
15.7
0
31.3
28.1
28.1
3.1
7.8
1.6
Before (%)
After (%)
*
27.1*
35.6
16.9
15.3*
5.1
0
18.8
37.5
35.4
4.2*
6.3
0
p < .05.
p < .01.
York Times after gay marriage legitimization. On the other hand, the percentage of anti-gay
marriage people covered in The New York Times also increased from 5.4% to 11.8%.
Different from The New York Times, there was not a significant increase in the Chicago
Tribune. As showed in Table 2, a total of 110 people expressing their attitudes toward gay
marriage were covered in the Chicago Tribune. Before gay marriage legitimization, 10.0%
pro-gay marriage people and 10.9% homosexuals were identified in the Chicago Tribune; after
the legitimization, 19.1% pro-gay marriage people and 11.8% homosexuals were cited in the
news coverage. There was an increase in the Chicago Tribune in terms of the percentage of
people who supported the legitimization of gay marriage, but the increasing percentage of
people who supported the legitimization was not as significant as it was found in The New
York Times. The results also found that the percentage of anti-gay marriage people cited in the
Chicago Tribune increased from 21.8% to 26.4%, which was relatively stable.
RQ3 examined news sources that were used more frequently in the two newspapers before
and after the gay marriage legitimization in the state of Massachusetts. Descriptive data were
shown in Table 3. Before the legitimization, unofficial-speaking people, including elite and
ordinary people, were the major sources for The New York Times; after the legitimization, the
source of official-speaking people increased dramatically, X2 (1, 59) = 10.40, p < .01. That is,
official-speaking, elite-speaking, and ordinary-speaking people became the major sources for
The New York Times.
Similar results were found in the Chicago Tribune. Before gay marriage legitimization,
elite-speaking and ordinary-speaking people were also the major sources. However, after the
legitimization, the source of official-speaking people increased considerably, X2 (1, 61) = 4.53,
p < .05. Additionally, official written documents also increased dramatically, X2 (1, 61) = 6.22,
Table 4
Ideology of source orientation in The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.
Ideology of source orientation
Conservative
Liberal
Both
None
Total
New York Times (%)
6.8
44.1
37.3
11.9
100
Chicago Tribune (%)
39.3
16.4
36.1
8.2
100
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Table 5
Tone differences between The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.
Tone used
Negative
Positive
Balanced
Neutral
Total
New York Times (%)
3.4
64.4
16.9
15.3
100
Chicago Tribune (%)
50.8
19.7
21.3
8.2
100
p < .05. In this vein, official-speaking, elite- speaking and ordinary-speaking people became
the major sources in the Chicago Tribune coverage after gay marriage legitimization.
In order to find out the perspectives the two newspapers held to report the public debate over
gay marriage, three hypotheses were developed. As indicated in Table 4, for H1, chi-square tests
were used to test the prediction and significant result was found, X2 (3, 120) = 21.52, p < .001,
which further suggested that The New York Times was inclined to use more liberal sources
(44.1%) while reporting controversial topics such as gay marriage legitimization, whereas the
Chicago Tribune used relatively conservative sources (39.3%) when covering the issue of gay
marriage.
Table 6a
Changing of reporting patterns in The New York Times.
Reporting patterns
New York Times
Before legitimization %
After legitimization %
Location
U.S. city
U.S. state
U.S. national
International
Total
0
26.7
53.3
3.3
100
10.3
31.0
55.2
3.4
100
Story source
Wire service
Staff reported
Both
Total
17.6
82.4
0
100
4.3
82.6
13.0
100
Story type
Events
Issues
Total
24.1
75.9
100
44.8
55.2
100
Approaches
Information
Opinion
Total
46.7*
53.3*
100
75.9*
24.1*
100
Frames
Empathy
Distance
Total
63.3*
36.7*
100
34.5*
65.5*
100
∗
p < .05.
P.-L. Pan et al. / The Social Science Journal 47 (2010) 630–645
641
H2 tested the differences in tones between the two newspapers while covering the issue of
gay marriage. As showed in Table 5, the result of the chi-square tests indicated the statistical
significance, X2 (3, 120) = 40.18, p < .001. A more positive tone was adopted by The New York
Times to cover the gay marriage issue (64.4%); on the contrary, a more negative tone was used
in the Chicago Tribune (50.8%). This result further supported what has been found in H1: The
New York Times took a much more liberal stance than the Chicago Tribune to look at the gay
marriage issue.
RQ4 was developed to test whether gay marriage legitimization in the state of Massachusetts
would influence the reporting patterns of related news coverage in the two newspapers. The
reporting patterns of related news coverage in this study were defined as the location of the
news story, the story source, the story type, the news approach used in news coverage, and
the framing type of news story. By using the legitimization of gay marriage as a dividing
point, two periods were identified for each newspaper: Before the legitimization and after the
legitimization. Chi-square tests were used to examine the changes in reporting patterns. As
indicated in Tables 6a and 6b, there were significant changes in two categories in terms of
reporting patterns—news approach used in news coverage and framing type of news story—in
The New York Times. Because of gay marriage legitimization, the news approach changed from
opinion-based (53.3%) to information-based (75.9%) in the coverage of The New York Times,
Table 6b
Changing of reporting patterns in the Chicago Tribune.
Reporting patterns
Chicago Tribune
Before legitimization %
After legitimization %
Location
U.S. city
U.S. state
U.S. national
International
Total
18.8*
9.4*
50.0*
21.9*
100
26.2*
8.2*
54.1*
11.5*
100*
Story source
Wire service
Staff reported
Both
Total
34.4
46.9
18.8
100
27.6
65.5
6.9
100
Story type
Events
Issues
Total
28.1
71.9
100
27.6
72.4
100
Approach
Information
Opinion
Total
50.0
50.0
100
72.4
27.6
100
Frames
Empathy
Distance
Total
50.0
50.0
100
27.6
72.4
100
∗
p < .05.
642
P.-L. Pan et al. / The Social Science Journal 47 (2010) 630–645
X2 (1, 59) = 5.20, p < .05. The framing type of news story was also changed from empathy-based
(63.3%) to distance-based (65.5%) in its news coverage, X2 (1, 59) = 4.83, p < .05. The same
statistical tests were also used to investigate the changes in the Chicago Tribune. However,
only one item—the location of news story—was significantly different before and after gay
marriage legitimization, X2 (3, 61) = 7.97, p < .05.
4. Conclusions and discussion
This study found that some topics were highlighted differently by the two newspapers. The
New York Times repeatedly emphasized that human rights were equal between heterosexuals
and homosexuals over this period. More specifically, The New York Times more strongly linked
the issue of human equality to the gay marriage issue, especially before the Massachusetts commonwealth legitimized the martial status of gay and lesbian couples. One possible explanation
for the result could be that The New York Times was inclined to stand by gay marriage as well
as influence its news audiences to realize the importance of equal rights in this public debate
over gay marriage. In the same vein, The New York Times tried to direct its news readers to
emphasize human equality while discussing gay marriage.
By contrast, the topics emphasized by the Chicago Tribune were different from those by The
New York Times. The Chicago Tribune did not frequently highlight the importance of equal
rights in the gay marriage issue, but paid more attention to other issues that were concerned
with American tradition and family values, and religious disciplinary in the gay marriage
debate. One possible explanation could be that the Chicago Tribune inclined to believe that gay
marriage legitimization could endanger American traditions, family institution, and religion.
The Chicago Tribune, therefore, tried to persuade its news audiences to realize the impact of
gay marriage on American society. Additionally, the results indicated that the amount of the
gay marriage news related to the issue of equal rights was significantly less covered in the news
coverage of the Chicago Tribune after gay marriage legitimization. It may be explained that the
backlash against gay marriage could occur because of the gay marriage legitimization, which
caused the Chicago Tribune to overlook the importance of human equality in the gay marriage
debate after gay marriage legitimization. Simply speaking, The New York Times embraced the
issue of human equality, while the Chicago Tribune attempted to emphasize American family
values in the public debate over gay marriage.
In addition, the influence of gay marriage legitimization also reflected on the increased
amount of homosexual presentation in the coverage of The New York Times, but not the Chicago
Tribune. After gay marriage legitimization, The New York Times frequently used the perspectives of homosexuals as well as pro-gay marriage people in its news coverage. However, the
Chicago Tribune did not increase homosexual coverage. One explanation could be that gay
marriage legitimization encouraged The New York Times to give homosexuals more opportunities to speak in its news stories, implying that homosexuals were one part of the American
population, and American society cannot ignore the existence of the homosexuals as well as
the human rights of homosexuals.
By contrast, the Chicago Tribune did not frequently mention the perspectives of homosexuals
on gay marriage issues in its news stories. The number of homosexual appearances in the
P.-L. Pan et al. / The Social Science Journal 47 (2010) 630–645
643
Chicago Tribune coverage was fewer than that in The New York Times coverage, both before and
after gay marriage legitimization. A possible reason for this result could be that an ideological
perspective of the Chicago Tribune as well as other social pressures dominated the Chicago
Tribune coverage about the gay marriage issues over this period. Surely, it could also be that
the editors of the Tribune may feel it was not an appropriate identification. Thus, the visibility
of the homosexual minority could not be frequently found in the Chicago Tribune coverage.
Gay marriage legitimization in the state of Massachusetts also influenced how The New
York Times and the Chicago Tribune used news sources in their stories. Both news media
used more governmental officials to state their perspectives in their coverage. It is due to the
fact that the gay marriage issue was a political debate between Republican and Democratic
politicians. Furthermore, the gay marriage issue was framed as an important topic of the 2004
presidential election in the United States. On the other hand, the ordinary people did not
have more opportunities to voice their opinions in the two news media after gay marriage
legitimization. To put it simply, after gay marriage legitimization, the politicians’ viewpoints
greatly dominated the coverage of the gay marriage news in both The New York Times and the
Chicago Tribune. Because of gay marriage legitimization in the state of Massachusetts, gay
marriage was not only viewed as a controversial issue related to human equality or traditional
morality, but also involved with politicians’ perspectives and their strategies in the elections.
Not only the content, but also the reporting patterns of The New York Times were influenced
by gay marriage legitimization. After the legitimization, The New York Times became an activist
for gay marriage. The study demonstrated that The New York Times was inclined to present
journalists’ personal opinions about gay marriage in its news coverage while reporting gay
marriage stories, especially after gay marriage legitimization. Moreover, The New York Times
more frequently held the journalists’ empathy to describe the gay marriage issue. Thus, it is fair
to say that The New York Times tried to push gay marriage to be nationally discussed through
presenting its human equality perspective in the news coverage. Unlike The New York Times,
the perspective of the Chicago Tribune on the gay marriage issue was relatively conservative.
The Chicago Tribune preferred to use some conservative news sources in its new coverage as
well as report the gay marriage news in a negative tone. Gay marriage legitimization did not
dramatically influence its reporting patterns. It might be explained that the Chicago Tribune
framed the gay marriage issue based upon its own ideology that was closely connected to
American traditional values and family institution. Moreover, it can be seen that the Chicago
Tribune attempted to oppose gay marriage legitimization as one part of American family.
5. Limitations
This study demonstrated that the ideological framing of the two mainstream newspapers were
quite different on the gay marriage issue. However, some limitation are found in this study.
First, while ideological differences were found between The New York Times and the Chicago
Tribune in their coverage of gay marriage, it is difficult to ascertain whether the ideological
framing was built by media ownership or news reporters. It is also hard to investigate the
influence of casual relationship between media ownership and news reporters on gay marriage
coverage in this content analysis. Thus, future research may look at the influence of ideological
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P.-L. Pan et al. / The Social Science Journal 47 (2010) 630–645
differences in newsrooms on how a controversial issue is covered in news media. In addition,
it was a long time in legitimizing the marital status for the gay and lesbian couples in the
state of Massachusetts. The sampling might be implemented from the news stories of The New
York Times and the Chicago Tribune in the longer time frame to compare their ideological
differences on the gay marriage issue. Moreover, it would be better to compare their degree
of positive or negative perspectives on the gay marriage issue if there would be more than
two national newspapers to be examined in this study. Comparing more than two mainstream
newspapers could explore the range of American perspectives on the reporting of gay marriage
news, because it could be determined exactly how both The New York Times and the Chicago
Tribune are placed in regard to the national scale.
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