Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Conceptual Framework
- Part II Framing Effects Research
- 3 Designing the Studies
- 4 Converging Cues and the Spread of Activation
- 5 Cognitive Complexity and Attitude Structure
- 6 Security Concerns and Tolerance Judgments
- 7 Group Perceptions and Expressive Action
- Part III Implications and Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Designing the Studies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Conceptual Framework
- Part II Framing Effects Research
- 3 Designing the Studies
- 4 Converging Cues and the Spread of Activation
- 5 Cognitive Complexity and Attitude Structure
- 6 Security Concerns and Tolerance Judgments
- 7 Group Perceptions and Expressive Action
- Part III Implications and Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
“Police arrested an American-born Muslim in St. Louis early Sunday and took him to a police station where FBI agents questioned him about his anti-war activities and whether he was planning any attacks against the U.S. government. Bret Darren Lee, whose Muslim name is Umar ben-Livan, said…he is active in Muslim and anti-war groups and acknowledged that he holds views that may be considered outside the political mainstream. But Lee said he is far from a terrorist.…While Lee was still in custody, FBI agents returned to Lee’s apartment about noon Sunday and spent a half-hour questioning his wife about whether he was a terrorist, his thoughts about the Taliban, and whether he was planning to take part in any more anti-war protests.”
– Phillip O’Connor St. Louis Post-Dispatch February 11, 2003“An FBI counterterrorism unit monitored and apparently infiltrated a peace group [the Thomas Merton Center] in Pittsburgh that opposed the invasion of Iraq, according to internal agency documents released Tuesday.…The documents make no mention of illegal activities, noting only that the group advocated ‘pacifism,’ opposed an invasion of Iraq, doubted the U.S. rationale for war, and had ties to an Islamic group with no known links to terrorism. The disclosure raised new questions about the extent to which federal authorities have been conducting surveillance operations against Americans since the Sept. 11 attacks.”
– Jonathan S. Landsay Knight Ridder Newspapers March 15, 2006The quotes above are from news stories that reflect the central theme of this book: the tension between the contending values of protecting national security and defending civil liberties. Both stories involve actions by the FBI as part of the War on Terror that are seen by some as expanding the scope of surveillance to include groups that are not threats to national security. Both deal with activists who have connections to Muslim groups, but apparently have no linkages to terrorism. Yet they also differ in important ways – ways that highlight the effects of message frames that we explore in the studies reported in this book.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- News Frames and National SecurityCovering Big Brother, pp. 83 - 98Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014