What I noticed popped up often in Judge Vaughn Walker’s 138-page Prop 8 ruling was how often he used the phrase “gays and lesbians” instead of the more clinical “homosexuals.” A gay man would do that, wouldn’t he? But of course Walker’s opinion isn’t the only place where language matters. If you look at both the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, you’ll notice the two papers have a wholly different view on your LIFESTYLE.
A new study published in The Social Science Journal looks at each newspaper’s coverage of The Gays between 2003-04 and finds:
“The New York Times was inclined to emphasize the topic of human equality related to the legitimization of gay marriage,” writes the research team, led by Po-Lin Pan of Arkansas State University. “The Chicago Tribune highlighted the importance of human morality associated with the gay-marriage debate.”
The researchers analyzed the content of each paper’s coverage of the issue during the year before and the year after the Nov. 18, 2003 Massachusetts ruling that legalized gay marriage in that state. A total of 120 news stories were studied to determine their approach to the topic, the tone of the writing and the types of sources who were quoted.
Their overall conclusion: “The New York Times embraced the issue of human equality, while the Chicago Tribune attempted to emphasize American family values in the debate over gay marriage.” Specifically, 33 percent of sampled stories in the Times focused on equal rights, compared to 19 percent in the Tribune.
To break things down even further, Miller-McCune explains:
Stories focusing on “American tradition and family values” made up 17.5 percent of the Times’ coverage, and 22.2 percent in the Tribune. Religious attitudes toward the topic were emphasized in 12 percent of the Times stories but nearly 20 percent of those in the Tribune.
In the year after the Massachusetts ruling, the Times coverage changed in one dramatic way: The newspaper quoted far more people who were identified as gay. Twenty percent of sources quoted in gay marriage-related stories were identified as gay, compared to 5.4 percent during the year before the ruling. The Tribune, in contrast, was more consistent. Before the ruling, 10.9 percent of sources in gay marriage-related stories were identified as gay; after the ruling, the number rose slightly to 11.8 percent.
Conclusion? Passing same-sex marriage laws makes me no more inclined to read a physical newspaper.
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Troy Boy
jason
Morality doesn’t just exist in the traditional family. Morality exists everywhere, and is reflected in the choices we make as individuals. I personally consider gay marriage to be a very moral choice within a gay culture that is often hell-bent on promiscuity.
Gay marriage puts a moral column in a community that has often traded on the permissiveness ethos.
As for those who think GLBT rights should be independent of morality, you are so wrong. So, so wrong. Our GLBT rights are based entirely on morality. Without morality, there would never have been a GLBT movement. Morality gave us the energy to drive the GLBT movement forward. GLBT rights are a moral cause.
Rut Roh, Raggy
Better boycott the Trib, then. They’ve reported news stories slightly more often in a way slightly different than the one we consider optimal! Onward and upward, until only causes and opinions we best approve of are expressed. ‘Cause surely we’re the only people who know how to exert this kind of pressure, so there won’t be any backlash. And politicizing everything and being perpetually bitchy and offended is fun!
edgyguy1426
The Trib has always been known as the more conservative of all of Chicago’s main papers. This isn’t news.