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Patterns in the American News Coverage of the September 11 Attacks and Their Consequences
Unformatted Document Text:  0 Patterns in the American News Coverage of the September 11 Attacks and Their Consequences Michael W. Traugott* and Ted Brader ( ## email not listed ## and ## email not listed ## ) Institute for Social Research The University of Michigan Box 1248 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248 Telephone: 734 763-4702 FAX: 734 764-3341 ABSTRACT This study combines content analysis and survey data to investigate how the media coverage of the September 11 attacks is related to citizens’ ability to explain what happened. To what extent did the coverage provide information about explanations for the attacks? And would exposure to media content produce more complex answers to survey questions about why they occurred? We employ a content analysis of U.S. News & World Report following the attacks and data from a panel survey of adult Americans. The media offered few explanations, and survey respondents could not provide many. Individual factors like education explain the ability of individuals to form complex views of the world, but attention to news and the volume of coverage a person is exposed to also play a role. If news organizations do not produce content that informs citizens about the underlying causes of events, they do not serve citizens well.

Authors: Traugott, Michael. and Brader, Ted.
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Patterns in the American News Coverage of the September 11 Attacks
and Their Consequences
Michael W. Traugott* and Ted Brader
(
## email not listed ##
and
## email not listed ##
)
Institute for Social Research
The University of Michigan
Box 1248
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248
Telephone: 734 763-4702
FAX: 734 764-3341
ABSTRACT
This study combines content analysis and survey data to investigate how the media
coverage of the September 11 attacks is related to citizens’ ability to explain what happened. To
what extent did the coverage provide information about explanations for the attacks? And would
exposure to media content produce more complex answers to survey questions about why they
occurred?
We employ a content analysis of U.S. News & World Report following the attacks and
data from a panel survey of adult Americans. The media offered few explanations, and survey
respondents could not provide many. Individual factors like education explain the ability of
individuals to form complex views of the world, but attention to news and the volume of
coverage a person is exposed to also play a role. If news organizations do not produce content
that informs citizens about the underlying causes of events, they do not serve citizens well.


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