Data Analysis

2010 Proposition 19 – No with 53.5%

2016 Proposition 64 – Yes with 57.13%

This project marked my first foray into data driven media analysis, improving my research and data analysis skills. I was ecstatic to see my research ideas come to life and to find a significant result for a project I cared about.

I wanted to investigate the role of the media in politics, especially in local voter participation issues, and learned that California voters chose against legalizing marijuana in 2010, but voted for it in 2016. I was curious about the role of the media in this change, and was eventually able to provide support for my claim that Californian media covered marijuana more positively before the 2016 election than before the 2010 election.

To do so, I compared the Los Angeles Times with the New York Times, to represent the national media, and gathered articles published from both over 3 months pre-election in 2010, 2013, and 2016. After coding each article for pro, anti, or neutral marijuana frames, I analyzed the various frames and frame types to find the frequency, and therefore salience, of each frame and frame type per time frame. My findings suggested that Californian media covered marijuana much more frequently and positively than national media, and that this coverage played a role in the success of the 2016 vote over that in 2010.