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About Annual Meeting
How do social movements enact cultural change? Social movement scholars have long studied how movements enact political change, but less studied is how movements change cultural beliefs and values. This project investigates how movements might enact cultural change by analyzing the contests over labels in mainstream newspapers. The news media is one of the most important arenas of public discourse and is a powerful influence on how the public perceives issues. Using a unique dataset consisting of every mention of homosexuality in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal since 1950, I investigate when, how, and why the newspapers adopted new language to talk about homosexuality. Results suggest that the most significant changes happen when the leadership of newspapers undergo changes themselves, opening up opportunities to influence newly appointed editors and publishers.