News Frames and National Security

Douglas M. McLeod is the Evjue Centennial Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His research centers on communication content and effects, focusing on social conflicts and the mass media as well as framing and priming effects on attitudes and behaviors. Dhavan V. Shah is the Louis A. and Mary E. Maier-Bascom Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he is Director of the Mass Communication Research Center. His work focuses on framing effects on social judgments, digital media influence on civic and political engagement, and the impact of health.

• Part I. Conceptual Framework: Introduction: news, national security, and civil liberties; 1. Understanding message framing and effects; 2. Framing surveillance and the war on terror; Part II. Framing Effects Research: 3. Designing the studies with Lucy Atkinson, Seungahn Nah and Hyunseo Hwang; 4. Converging cues and the spread of activation with Jaeho Cho and Homero Gil de Zuniga; 5. Cognitive complexity and attitude structure with Hyunseo Hwang, Jaeho Cho, Seungahn Nah and Nam-Jin Lee; 6. Security concerns and tolerance judgments with Heejo Keum and Hernando Rojas; 7. Group perceptions and expressive action with Michael G. Schmierbach, Michael P. Boyle and Cory L. Armstrong; Part III. Implications and Conclusions: 8. Covering 'Big Brother'; Appendixes.

'This is an impressive collection of theories and empirical studies of framing effects in the important area of national security vs. civil liberties during the War on terror, it is theoretically sound and methodically rigorous … this volume is a comprehensive synthesis of the theoretical approaches and research studies surrounding training effects on national security and civil liberties issues. The unifying model can be applied to framing effects in other research domains.' Weiwu Zhang, Communication Booknotes Quarterly