Adam Simon

News Coverage of the Gulf Crisis and Public Opinion A Study of Agenda-Setting, Priming, and Framing

This article documents three types of media effects that operated on public opinion during the Persian Gulf crisis and war. First, the level of network news coverage matched the proportion of Gallup poll respondents naming the Gulf crisis as the nations most important problem (agenda-setting). Second, use of data from the 1988, 1990, and 1991 National Election Studies (NES) shows that the weight respondents accorded foreign policy performance when evaluating George Bush significantly increased (priming) in the aftermath of the Gulf crisis. Third, content data (showing that network news coverage was preoccupied with military affairs and highly event oriented) and survey data are coupled to show that respondents reporting higher rates of exposure to television news expressed greater support for a military as opposed to a diplomatic response to the crisis (framing). In conclusion, it is suggested that these effects, in combination with the nature of the medias information sources, were conducive to legitimizing the administrations perspective on the crisis.

Does Attack Advertising Demobilize the Electorate

We address the effects of negative campaign advertising on turnout. Using a unique experimental design in which advertising tone is manipulated within the identical audiovisual context, we find that exposure to negative advertisements dropped intentions to vote by 5%. We then replicate this result through an aggregate-level analysis of turnout and campaign tone in the 1992 Senate elections. Finally, we show that the demobilizing effects of negative campaigns are accompanied by a weakened sense of political efficacy. Voters who watch negative advertisements become more cynical about the responsiveness of public officials and the electoral process.

Replicating Experiments Using Aggregate and Survey Data: The Case of Negative Advertising and Turnout

Experiments show significant demobilizing and alienating effects of negative advertising. Although internally valid, experiments may have limited external validity. Aggregate and survey data offer two ways of providing external validation for experiments. We show that survey recall measures of advertising exposure suffer from problems of internal validity due to simultaneity and measurement error, which bias estimated effects of ad exposure. We provide valid estimates of the causal effects of ad exposure for the NES surveys using instrumental variables and find that negative advertising causes lower turnout in the NES data. We also provide a careful statistical analysis of aggregate turnout data from the 1992 Senate elections that Wattenberg and Brians (1999) recommend. These aggregate data confirm our original findings. Experiments, surveys, and aggregate data all point to the same conclusion: Negative advertising demobilizes voters.

Crime in Black and White The Violent, Scary World of Local News

Crime is central to the public debate about the state of American society. Citizens consistently express great concern about the issue and are increasingly calling for punitive policies, such as “three strikes” and the death penalty. In response, politicians and policymakers have allocated larger and larger shares of their budgets to crime control. This is ironic given that the population-adjusted crime rate has declined in recent years. This article addresses the paradox by focusing on the role of television news. A content analysis of local television news in a major media market demonstrates that coverage of crime features two important cues: Crime is violent, and criminals are nonwhite. We translate these media biases into an experimental design that manipulates the level of violence and the race of the perpetrator to test the relevance of these cues to public thinking about crime. The results indicate that race works independently and in conjunction with racial stereotypes to influence peoples concern about crime and their willingness to attribute criminal behavior to breakdowns in the African-American community. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for race relations, the practice of journalism, and public policy.

Media Framing and Effective Public Deliberation

Thanks to recent advances in public opinion research, we now know that the origins of public opinion—the sacred icon of democracy—lay in elite discourse. We also know that the public relies on the mass media for its political information. However, the pathways of elite discourse, as it winds its way through the media, remain shrouded in mystery. The purpose of this article is to probe the discussion of political issues that drives public opinion. Some critics direct our focus away from these pathways altogether, focusing on the ability of certain audience members to become their own producers of meaning independent of elite discourse. In contrast, other scholars argue that elite discourse represents a powerful hegemonic force for indoctrinating the masses with the ideas of the ruling class. In this vein, they claim that the discussion of issues and events in the media largely responds to, but does not cause, conditions in the material world, for example serving to “index” the level of conflict in government. Finally, to our mind, the most optimistic as well as accurate view holds that the media can be the locus for genuine public deliberation. We argue that the give and take of ideas that political argumentation in the mass media entails both follows the dictates of communicative rationality as it unwinds over time and, more important, leads to deliberative outcomes that have substantial consequences in the real world. This article, then, documents these points with respect to media coverage of labor strikes. Public discourse about strikes provides an exceptionally fertile ground for testing hypotheses about effective deliberation. These events provide an occasion for conflict between broad economic groups in society. Thus, strikes provide a reasonable arena for assessing the competing predictions of the discourse theories with which we are concerned. Also, the interactions between elites—such as union leaders, company management, and public officials—can be clearly characterized in the terms used in these theories. For these reasons, we can develop and test clear predictions about the direction of causality between patterns of discourse and real-world outcomes. Specifically, in this, our first effort, we employ a variant of framing analysis to examine the public discourse associated with a U.S. national labor strike—the 1997

Theory and Modeling of Asymmetric Catalytic Reactions

Modern density functional theory and powerful contemporary computers have made it possible to explore complex reactions of value in organic synthesis. We describe recent explorations of mechanisms and origins of stereoselectivities with density functional theory calculations. The specific functionals and basis sets that are routinely used in computational studies of stereoselectivities of organic and organometallic reactions in our group are described, followed by our recent studies that uncovered the origins of stereocontrol in reactions catalyzed by (1) vicinal diamines, including cinchona alkaloid-derived primary amines, (2) vicinal amidophosphines, and (3) organo-transition-metal complexes. Two common cyclic models account for the stereoselectivity of aldol reactions of metal enolates (Zimmerman-Traxler) or those catalyzed by the organocatalyst proline (Houk-List). Three other models were derived from computational studies described in this Account. Cinchona alkaloid-derived primary amines and other vicinal diamines are venerable asymmetric organocatalysts. For α-fluorinations and a variety of aldol reactions, vicinal diamines form enamines at one terminal amine and activate electrophilically with NH(+) or NF(+) at the other. We found that the stereocontrolling transition states are cyclic and that their conformational preferences are responsible for the observed stereoselectivity. In fluorinations, the chair seven-membered cyclic transition states is highly favored, just as the Zimmerman-Traxler chair six-membered aldol transition state controls stereoselectivity. In aldol reactions with vicinal diamine catalysts, the crown transition states are favored, both in the prototype and in an experimental example, shown in the graphic. We found that low-energy conformations of cyclic transition states occur and control stereoselectivities in these reactions. Another class of bifunctional organocatalysts, the vicinal amidophosphines, catalyzes the (3 + 2) annulation reaction of allenes with activated olefins. Stereocontrol here is due to an intermolecular hydrogen bond that activates the electrophilic partner in this reaction. We have also studied complex organometallic catalysts. Krisches ruthenium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrohydroxyalkylation of butadiene involves two chiral ligands at Ru, a chiral diphosphine and a chiral phosphate. The size of this combination strains the limits of modern computations with over 160 atoms, multiple significant steps, and a variety of ligand coordinations and conformations possible. We found that carbon-carbon bond formation occurs via a chair Zimmerman-Traxler-type transition structure and that a formyl CH···O hydrogen bond from aldehyde CH to phosphate oxygen, as well as steric interactions of the two chiral ligands, control the stereoselectivity.

Transition States of Vicinal Diamine-Catalyzed Aldol Reactions

The transition states of aldol reactions catalyzed by vicinal diamines are characterized with density functional calculations. It was found that a cyclic transition state involving a nine-membered hydrogen-bonded ring is preferred. The crown (chair-chair) conformations of the transition state account for the observed stereoselectivity of these reactions.

Toward Theory-Based Research in Political Communication

can do quite well in seeking policy benefits. In the case of the Contract With America, conservative business interests joined forces with Republican legislators and communications consultants to promote a legislative program with clear beneficiaries. Those who are organized and have big financial interests can gain disproportionate government benefits. All of this suggests that Schattschneiders (1960) fears about the interest group chorus singing with an upper-class bias are coming true.

Arynes and Cyclic Alkynes as Synthetic Building Blocks for Stereodefined Quaternary Centers

We report a facile method to synthesize stereodefined quaternary centers from reactions of arynes and related strained intermediates using β-ketoester-derived substrates. The conversion of β-ketoesters to chiral enamines is followed by reaction with in situ generated strained arynes or cyclic alkynes. Hydrolytic workup provides the arylated or alkenylated products in enantiomeric excesses as high as 96%. We also describe the one-pot conversion of a β-ketoester substrate to the corresponding enantioenriched α-arylated product. Computations show how chirality is transferred from the N-bound chiral auxiliary to the final products. These are the first theoretical studies of aryne trapping by chiral nucleophiles to set new stereocenters. Our approach provides a solution to the challenging problem of stereoselective β-ketoester arylation/alkenylation, with formation of a quaternary center.

Organocatalytic [6+4] Cycloadditions via Zwitterionic Intermediates: Chemo-, Regio-, and Stereoselectivities

The mechanisms and origins of chemo- and stereoselectivities of the organocatalytic [6+4] cycloaddition between 2-cyclopentenone and tropone have been investigated by a combined computational and experimental study. In the presence of a cinchona alkaloid primary amine catalyst and an acid additive, 2-cyclopentenone forms a cross-dienamine intermediate that subsequently undergoes a stepwise [6+4] cycloaddition reaction via a zwitterionic intermediate. The rate-determining transition state features a strong hydrogen-bonding interaction between the tropone oxygen atom and the protonated quinuclidine directing the reaction course leading to a highly periselective [6+4] cycloaddition. The importance of the strong hydrogen-bonding interaction is also demonstrated by the influence of the concentration of the acid additive on the yields and enantioselectivities of the reaction. The corresponding [4+2] cycloaddition reaction has a much higher energy barrier. The enantioselectivity of the [6+4] cycloaddition originates from different repulsive hydrogen-hydrogen interactions that distinguish the diastereomeric transition states.