| dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines the relationship between law and the media by looking at two
important and politicized health issues, abortion and HIV/AIDS, in New York and Tennessee. In
order to achieve this goal, legislative discussion and media articles were dissected using
MAXQDA and results were analyzed using Excel. Results demonstrated that abortion and
HIV/AIDS differ in how they are portrayed in state legislatures and media sources. My findings
show that abortion is a highly opinionated topic that struggles with scientific legitimacy due to
the political domination of abortion frames while HIV is considered more of a scientific issue but
struggles with stigma. The results also show that, based on the topic, media sources vary in the
extent to which they follow the frames and biases perpetuated by partisan politics. Overall, this
thesis sheds light on the relationship between legislators and media journalists and between
abortion and HIV/AIDS. | en_US |
