9601418 Just Scholars have long recognized that the analysis of public opinion alone, cannot explain which campaign communications influence voters. Likewise the study of campaign media cannot by itself explain how citizens respond to specific messages. The objective of this research is to advance the study of media and elections by rigorously preparing, documenting, archiving , and disseminating data from a wide-ranging content analysis of the 1996 presidential campaign. The accessibility of these data will help researchers to unite the study of the campaign at the macro level - - what happened and how it is reported and talked about in the mass media - - with the study of individual behavior at the micro level - - who uses which media, what they learn, and how they decide to vote. A consortium of media scholars will undertake a wide-ranging content analysis of campaign media including traditional news outlets: network television news (ABC, CBS, and NBC), the New York Times, a sample of newspapers., and news magazines, political advertising, speeches and debates, as well as newer forms of campaign media: televised candidate interviews, talk radio and specialized cable programming. The analysis uses a consistent instrument so that media can be rigorously compared and can be interfaced with the schedule of questions in the 1996 National Election Studies survey. A major portion of the work of the content analysis is already supported by grants from the Pew Charitable Trust and the Markle Foundation. This part of the project is directed at facilitating the archiving and dissemination of this massive data set for use by the community os social science scholars. ***
