Indexing The White House statements regarding Snowden and NSA: A content analysis of U.S. elite newspapers' opinion piece

The current study aims to advance knowledge about indexing and elite debates by examining and comparing coverage of a complex issue in the official government statements and opinion sections of two elite American news organizations. More specifically, this research examines whether or not The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal used any news frames promoted by The White House regarding the former NSA contactor Edward Snowden and his whistleblowing attempts. Results of the textual analysis of The White House Statements and selected opinion pieces indicate that indexing did not occur and a variety of opinion took place. Listed results fall in the theoretical realm of the indexing hypothesis. The study demonstrated that opinion journalism serves an important role in facilitating debates around salient issues and informing the public about those debates.