Mobilizing Consensus on Facebook: Networked Framing of the U.S. Gun-Control Movement on Facebook

Abstract

This study draws on networked framing and intermedia network agenda-setting theories to examine how different informational actors have framed the March for Our Lives gun control movement in 2018. This study uses the Social Science One Facebook URLs share dataset to compare network-agenda setting of different media types including offline news media, partisan sites, nonpartisan sites, advocacy/activism organizations, and social media/aggregate services. Results suggest that news media’s framing was the richest and most dynamic, suggesting their important roles in setting the gun issue as a salient public agenda. Meanwhile, emerging media expanded the scope of framing by covering race, gender, and equity issues into gun politics. The movement/activist organizational actors showed the least similarity to other media types, inviting further questions on the role of movement/activist actors in shaping public attention and agendas in the process.