Framing Policy after 9/11: Hegemony, Resonance and Resistance.

Both the Bush Administration and the peace movement in the United States generated high levels of public support for opposing policy perspectives in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. We hypothesize that this seeming anomaly can best be explained by both pro-war and anti-war framing performing well on seven dimensions of resonance and potency. To assess our hypothesis, we use NVivo software to data-mine and analytically model the text of speeches made by President Bush as well as official statements issued by 9 different US peace movement organizations between September 11^th and December 31^st of 2001. The results support our expectations. Framing in President Bush's speeches took full advantage of discursive and emotional opportunities to craft highly resonant and potent messages supportive of war and repression. In response, framing by U.S. PMOs both challenged and harnessed hegemony. In challenging hegemony, PMOs undermined the symbolic and emotive basis of resonant and potent pro-war framing while simultaneously attaining resonance and potency among traditional constituents belonging to oppositional cultures. In harnessing hegemony, PMOs utilized the same opportunities available to the Bush Administration to mobilize consensus and action beyond its traditional adherents. Four contributions of our research to the literature are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]