Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong
Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, this report illustrates the way the media has help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how “opinion entrepreneurs” (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the “conservative echo chamber” orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known comminity organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN…
Read the full report here.
This report is brought to you with permission from Christopher Martin Ph.D.