Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Zha, Wei
Author's Email Address	wzha1@lsu.edu
URN	etd-11012008-005747
Title	News Framing, Pre-existing Schemas and Public Opinion on International Trade and Individual Investment Intentions
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department	Mass Communication
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Robert Kirby Goidel Committee Chair Judith Sylvester Committee Member Kevin Grobman Committee Member Margaret DeFleur Committee Member Eric T. Hillebrand Dean's Representative
Keywords	public opinion on foreign policy pre-existing schema message frame
Date of Defense	2008-10-03
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Considerable research has been devoted to detailing how news framing structures public opinion. As a major rhetoric device to present information to the public, framing has the capacity of enlightening the public on the costs and benefits of particular policy choices. However, few studies have examined media framing of international trade and its impact on public opinion, and no study to date has connected how framing of international agreements might affect individual investment attentions. This study attempts to fill this gap in the literature by examining individual responses to pro-trade versus anti-trade and gain versus lose frames. It further extends existing literature by considering the impact of framing on individual investment intentions suggesting that framing has effects beyond opinion and may impact actual behaviors. Even though the frames in communication do influence individual preference choices concerning foreign trade policies, these policy options are also subject to powerful influence of individual pre-existing schemas about international trade. These predispositions could help not only redistribute the scarce resource of attention and construe incoming stimuli, but also orientate public opinion on foreign trade policies and even influence individual behavioral responses.
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