ABSTRACT

Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Same-Sex Adoption: A Community Structure Approach

Same-sex adoption is an emerging controversy. In some states same-sex adoption is supported, but in conservative Florida, homosexual couples are forbidden from adopting children. Yet the American Academy of Pediatrics welcomes same-sex adoption. Supporters of gay adoption argue that since there is no conclusive evidence on whether children of gay families are negatively impacted, and also because many children who are products of homosexual parents are happy and well-adjusted, there is no reason to ban same-sex adoption. Opponents of same-sex adoption argue that both male and female counterparts are needed to adequately raise a family and homosexual parenting raises the issue of sexual abuse. Differing opinions surrounding this issue make same-sex adoption an important topic to explore.

Specifically, this study uses a community structure approach, initiated by Tichenor, Donahue, and Olien in Minnesota (1973, 1980) and revised and tested by Pollock and other researchers in nationwide studies (1977, 1978, 1974-2003) to explore the ways certain demographic structures of a community are linked to newspaper reporting on same-sex adoption. A sample of newspaper articles of 150 words or more printed on the topic was collected from Lexis-Nexis from October 31, 2000 to December 1, 2002. The resulting 216 articles were analyzed using content and statistical analyses. Content analysis combined a “prominence” score -- comprised of the article’s placement, length, headline size, presence of photographs or graphics -- and overall “direction” -- favorable, unfavorable, or neutral/ balanced – for each article to calculate Pollock’s “Media Vector” for each newspaper, yielding a measure of issue “projection.”

Pearson Correlations and regression analysis tested links between different city characteristics and coverage of same-sex adoption. An original Gay Legal Index, measuring legal or political measures accommodating gays in a city, was found to have the largest correlation with positive newspaper coverage of same-sex adoption (r = .687; p = .002). An original Gay Market Index, measuring the prominence of institutions marketing to gays within a city, was also found to be significant (r = .508; p = .026). By contrast, there was a negative correlation between coverage of same-sex adoption and measures of “lifecycle position”: families with children ages 13-15 (r = -.503; p = .028), ages 11-12 (r = -.498; p = .029) and ages 8-10 (r = -.471; p = .038). A “stakeholder” measure, percent engaged in devotional reading, also had a negative relationship with media coverage of gay adoption (r = -.451; p = .046). Regression analysis found that the Gay Legal Index and position in the lifecycle (families with children 8-15) together accounted for 61 percent of the variance, with Gay Legal Index alone accounting for 47 percent of the variance.

Paper presented at the annual conference of the New Jersey Communication Association, April, 2003, Ewing, NJ