Defining the Enemy: How Donald Trump Frames the News Media

Abstract

Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of the news media. This study content analyzes how Trump tweeted about the news media as the Republican nominee through his first year in office. Results revealed that Trump privileged conservative media via praise and media appearance frames, mentions, and retweets, while denigrating nonconservative and general media via attack and bias frames. In addition, Trump employed attack frames more as president than nominee. Finally, Trump’s attack and bias frames generated more retweets and favorites than other frames. Given Trump’s influence, such framing could strongly contribute to the public’s polarized perceptions of the news media.