Support For A Supreme Court Affirmative Action Decision A Story in Black and White

• Published in: American politics research Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 251 - 279
• Main Authors: Clawson, Rosalee A., Waltenburg, Eric N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks SAGE Publications 01-05-2003; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Affirmative Action; Black politics; Black White Differences; Discrimination; Judicial Decisions; Mass media; Mass Media Effects; Mass Media Images; Media; News Coverage; Political science research; Public opinion; Public Support; Race; Race relations; Supreme Court; Supreme Court decisions; U.S.A; United States Supreme Court; United States > US; mass media; Supreme Court legitimacy; public opinion; Black press; race
• ISSN: 1532-673X; 1552-3373
• DOI: 10.1177/1532673X03251197

Unlike other policy-making institutions that actively attempt to shape public opinion, the Supreme Court is largely dependent upon others to disseminate its policy pronouncements to the public. One consequence: How the media frame the Court’s actions can affect public support for Court policies. This article presents the results of an experiment designed to take soundings on the effect of different media frames on White and Black support for a controversial affirmative action ruling. Using stimuli we created based on coverage of the Adarand v. Pena (1995) decision in the Black press and the mainstream press, we find that media framing has a significant effect on agreement with the Court’s policy among White subjects. For Blacks, the impact of the media framing is moderated by ideological predispositions. In addition, both White and Black support for the Court’s ruling is influenced by the media portrayal of Justice Clarence Thomas.