Miller-McCune reviewed a study just published in The Social Science Journal which compares coverage of gay marriage in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune. The results may shock you.“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.
