How the News Covers History: A Thematic Analysis of the New York Times and Wall Street's Journal's Coverage of Kamala Harris's 2020 Vice Presidential Campaign

Kamala Harris made history on November 7, 2020, when she was elected as the first female Vice President of the United States. In addition to being the first woman, she became the first African-American and Indian-American to attain this position. As a result, the media had to grapple with how to cover her historic campaign from the moment she was announced as the vice-presidential selection. This qualitative thematic analysis examined The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal's coverage of her campaign with significant analysis on important events such as the initial buzz surrounding her selection, the convention speech, and the vice-presidential debate. Specifically, this study examines 70 news articles total from both newspapers from August 11-November 3, 2020 to determine the recurring themes from her coverage. Results indicated that although traditional media frames and themes were not a significant focus, Harris's intersectionality brought about a new set of frames to explore, with subtle differences between the two newspapers. Implications of these results and future considerations for the media are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Department dc:contributor.department

Communication

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Parvatam, Pranav

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Tedesco, John C.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Horning, Michael A.
• Logan, Nneka

• Harris
• thematic analysis
• New York Times
• Wall Street Journal

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:31581

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/103966