Item Details

title

FRAMING PSYCHEDELICS: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF PSYCHEDELIC COVERAGE IN U.S. NEWSPAPERS

author

Giorgio, Gina

abstract

News media plays an important role in shaping public perceptions of psychedelics andinfluencing relevant policies. News thematic analyses have been conducted for marijuana, e-cigarettes, opioids, alcohol, and prescription drugs, but not for psychedelic substances (Lyu et al., 2021; Webster et al., 2020; Lynch, 2020; Kersbergen et al., 2022; Almomani et al., 2023). This qualitative thematic analysis and quantitative content analysis employed Framing Theory and Agenda-Setting Theory to identify and describe the prominent themes and subthemes in highly circulated American newspapers’ reporting on psychedelics, due to their resurgence into mainstream healthcare, research, pop culture, and politics. Psychedelic news articles from 2017 to 2023 (n = 212) were analyzed to assess article themes and frames, along with their frequencies. Seven themes were found: Health and Wellness; Pop Culture and Recreation; Science and Technology; Sacred Usage; Business and Industry Development; Law; and Safety and Education, with Western Renaissance as a metatheme. Results revealed Pop Culture and Recreation to be the most widely reported theme, closely followed by Law. The analysis did not see a change in salience of article themes at different time periods, but rather, all seven themes were more frequently reported in 2022 and 2023. The types of news reporting and their escalated frequency may have implications for policy reform, perception change, indigenous reciprocity, fact-based drug education, and greater accessibility for those looking to improve their mental, physical, and spiritual wellness. Findings of the study suggest real-world applications for understanding the ways in which psychedelics are being filtered through a Western lens. Future research should explore this topic with a greater scope of psychedelic articles over a longer period of time.

subject

Agenda-Setting Theory

Framing Theory

News

Policy

Psychedelics

Public Health

contributor

Giles, Steven (advisor)

Krcmar, Marina (committee member)

Gill, Rebecca (committee member)

date

2024-05-23T08:36:14Z (accessioned)

2024-05-23T08:36:14Z (available)

2024 (issued)

degree

Communication (discipline)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/109421 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis