Manipulating Public Opinion: How Media Framing Affects Public Opinion of Military Engagement and Restricting Civil Liberties

This study sets out to evaluate the influence of framing and emotions on public opinion, specifically regarding the issues of military engagement and the restriction of civil rights. This was accomplished through a survey experiment which presented treatment groups with simulated news stories which were framed in different ways while holding all facts of the fabricated event the same. A control group took the survey without seeing a simulated news story. After reading the story, treatment group participants took surveys to assess the impact that these framed stories had on their emotions and support for military engagement and the restriction of civil liberties. The results of this research found that the framed news stories did not have the direct influence on support hypothesized. However, they had statistically significant influence on participant emotions and these emotions had a significant impact on their support for military engagement and the restriction of civil liberties