Exploring Cross-National Media Frames of Multicultural Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Perceptions, Frames, and Futures: Interrogating Policies and Programs

Abstract

Canada, Australia, England, and the U.S. have adopted unique multicultural education policies and practices based on country-specific social, political, and institutional dynamics. Little empirical research, however, has studied the role of the media in these differences. To address this, we use Structural Topic Modeling to examine approximately 4,000 articles covering two decades from 32 politically diverse Anglosphere newspapers. In doing so, we identify the topics of media coverage related to multicultural education over time and how the prevalence of each topic correlates with newspaper country and its political orientation. Our analysis shows: (1) national differences shape framing more than political orientation (2) national differences in framing are consistent with extant comparative research about differences in national models of multicultural education.

Authors

• David Diehl, Vanderbilt University

• Jong Eun Jung, Vanderbilt University