2010 - Public Relations Society of America

positive correlation between year and energy (r(18) = .527, p = .025). A negative correlation was
revealed for negative economic impact, r(18) = -.499, p = .035, and parts, r(18) = -.618, p = .006
(Figure 6).
Dominant frame package. The procedural frame package was more likely than expected
to be present before the Kyoto Protocol, and the sustainable or proliferation frame package was
more likely than expected to be present after the Kyoto Protocol. In 1991 the procedural frame
package was more likely than expected to be the dominant frame package, and in 2008
sustainable and proliferation frames were more likely than expected to be the dominant frame
package.
Pearson correlations between year and the proportion of news stories with each particular
dominant frame package revealed significant changes over time in the proportion of certain
frames. Sustainable frames increased over time (r(18) = .59, p = .01) as did proliferation frames
(r(18) = .46, p = .055). Procedural frames decreased over time (r(18) = -.728, p = .001). No
significant relationships were found for any other dominant frame packages. Headlines from
stories with the sustainable dominant frame package include: “U.S. News: Carbon Caps May
Give Nuclear Power a Lift,” “Working to Reactivate Indian Point 2,” and “In S.C., Rethinking an
Atomic Waste Welcome Mat: Task Force Plan Worries a Town.”
Comparing frame packages with the four newspapers revealed four significant frame
packages: human/health, r(561) = .154, p = .004; x 2 (2) = 13.299, p = .004; procedural, r(561) =
.119, p = .046; x 2 (2) = 7.988, p = .046; marketplace, r(561) = .330, p < .001; x 2 (2) = 61.211, p <
.001; and proliferation, r(561) = .249, p < .001; x 2 (2) = 34.686, p < .001.
Figure 2: Comparison of Significant Dominant Frame Packages from 1991-2008
Examples of stories identified as exhibiting attributes from one of the four significant
dominant frame packages provide additional insight. For instance, a story from USA Today
coded as a human/health frame package had the following quote “. . .(anti-radiation pill)
distribution could undermine public confidence in the safety of the nation’s nuclear plants.”
Stories coded as procedural and marketplace frame packages included the New York Times’
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