| This dissertation explores the effectiveness of different issue frames in influencing public perceptions of the Affordable Care Act, contributing to an understanding of why citizens take the issue positions they do, as well as why different people sometimes adopt fundamentally divergent perceptions of what a policy issue entails in the first place.;I estimate the effectiveness of different issue frames by analyzing the relative frequency of various frames---employed in the debate over the Affordable Care Act between March 2010 and May 2012---in congressional press releases and newspaper articles vis-a-vis letters to the editor. When an individual employs a given frame in a letter to the editor, it is an indication that this frame has influenced the individual's understanding of the issue at hand. Thus, frames employed more frequently in letters to the editor (with the frequency of these frames in congressional press releases and newspaper articles used as a baseline for comparison) can be regarded as more influential. Through this research, I show the utility of using observational data to measure framing effects---an approach virtually absent from existing literature on the topic, which relies almost exclusively on experiments.;Results show strong support for the theory that "easy" issue frames---that is, those that portray an issue in ways that are primarily non-technical, absolute (rather than contextual), and emotional---have been more influential than harder alternatives in shaping how politically engaged members of the public, such as those who write letters to the editor, have viewed the issue of health care reform. The results are less clear regarding the extent to which this attachment to easy interpretations of the issue is a framing effect: The research provides minimal evidence of letter writers' perceptions following the strategic framing of the issue by members of Congress. More evidence, though still limited, is uncovered to suggest that letter writers have followed the framing of the issue by newspaper journalists. |
