DIVISION IN DAIRYLAND: COMMUNITY STRUCTURE, SOCIAL IDENTITY AND NEWS FRAMES DURING THE WISCONSIN GUBERNATORIAL RECALL by Sandra

M. Knisely

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts (Journalism & Mass Communication)

at the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON 2013

 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements....iii List of Tables..iv List of Figures..v Abstract...vi Chapter 1 Theoretical framework for understanding news frames during the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall...1 Literature review..........5 Hypotheses and research questions....31 Methods..35 Results....47 Hypotheses and research question outcomes.66 Discussion..67 Conclusion.80

2 3 4

References......83 Appendix A B C D E F Map of Wisconsin counties and county seats........89 Map of Wisconsin recall election outcomes......90 Coding Instrument.....91 Codebook...........94 Inventory of sample newspapers and number of articles collected...98 Inventory of coded articles by type..100

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Doug McLeod, for all of his guidance throughout this project. I would also like to thank to Professor Al Gunther and Professor Sue Robinson for serving as my committee members, as well as Courtney Hoffmann, who was invaluable during the coding process. Finally, I want to give a special thank you to Matthew Barnidge for offering advice and moral support every step of the way. Without him, I would probably still be lost on a county highway somewhere near Manitowoc, searching for the public library.

 LIST OF TABLES

1: Descriptive statistics for independent variables.40 2: Correlation matrix between pluralism indicators...42 3: Overview of article frames........45 4: Overview of article characteristics....46 5: Frequencies and percent of sample for each article subject, endorsement, slant and type...50 6: Correlations between article type and averages of frame per county....51 7: Correlations between article subject and averages of frames per county......52 8: Correlations between article endorsement and averages of frames per county.53 9: Correlations between article slant and averages of frames per county......53 10: Correlations between article tone and averages of frames per county....54 11: Multivariate linear regression results for county-level frame averages...57 12: Multivariate logistic regression results for article-level frame presences...59 13: Linear regression results for indicators related to article subject ...61 14: Linear regression results for indicators related to article endorsement...61 15: Linear regression results for indicators related to article slant....60 16: Linear regression results for indicators related to article type.....62 17: Multivariate regression results for recall outcome......64 18: Simple regression results for pluralism indicators on voting outcome65

 LIST OF FIGURES

1: Subject Frequency 48 2: Type Frequency........ 48 3: Endorsement Frequency49 4: Slant Frequency....49

 ABSTRACT

This project examines coverage of the 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election in 72 state newspapers. A content analysis was performed to look for relationships between various community characteristics, coverage frames and article characteristics. Specifically, frames related to conflict, economics, social discord, political process and political policy were examined, as were characteristics including article type, tone, subject, slant and endorsement. These relationships were interpreted via theories related to structural pluralism and were connected to concepts from geographicand class-based social identity literatures. Ultimately, this project found indicators in news coverage for community tendencies related to conflict avoidance and tolerance. Broadly, less pluralistic communities were more preoccupied with the social impact and divisiveness of the recall election than were more pluralistic communities.

 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A week before the 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election, a woman in Portage, Wisconsin, watched as her Recall Walker sign was stolen from her yard. She wrote to her local paper about the incident, commenting: I wondered why the person didnt just ask if they could have the sign for their yardI would have gladly given it to them (Kutzke, 2012). Such a lighthearted response, however, belied the underlying tension developing between neighbors not only in Portage that spring but also in communities across Wisconsin during the run-up to the historic and deeply contentious gubernatorial recall election. The recall election made national news, and pundits on both sides of the partisan aisle described the Wisconsin story as having political significance well beyond the dairy state (Robinson, Knisely & Schwartz, 2012). For example, some media treated the recall election as a bellwether for how the battleground state would vote in the looming presidential electiona prediction that ultimately did not hold up. However, there are other ways in which the Wisconsin case is useful for broader political discourse. The case involved various dimensions of tension, including rural-versus-urban dwellers, government workers-versus-private sector workers, haves versus have-nots, as well as more predictable frames, such as liberal-versus-conservative or Republican-versusDemocrat. Its clear that some of these conflicts were more dominant than others in different communities, and the fundamental question of this project is whether the frames used in particular communities were related to the demographic, structural and geographic

 features of those communities. This study asks whether it is possible to tease out which community characteristics were most likely to predict these frames and whether frames were related to voting outcomes. If so, such work could serve to highlight how even subtle variations among communities within a single state can ultimately impact political outcomes. Before considering these questions, however, its worth reviewing the context in which the Wisconsin recall took place. In February 2011, Governor Scott Walker introduced Act 10, which was intended to close a budget deficit by cutting pensions and other benefits for public workers, as well as curtail the collective bargaining powers of public employee unions. The bills introduction and Republican attempts for a hasty passage sparked a significant public backlash that included a steady stream of protests at the state Capitol. The protests escalated through February and into March, and various national political and cultural figures came to Madison to show support for union workers, including filmmaker Michael Moore and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. As the protests continued, the political atmosphere in Wisconsin became increasingly polarized. Fourteen Democratic state senators fled the state for more than 20 days in an attempt to prevent the quorum necessary for a vote. Act 10, also known the budget repair bill or the collective bargaining bill, was passed on March 10, but the passage of the bill did not bring the opposition to an end. When the 14 senators returned to Madison on March 12, the protests swelled to more than 100,000 people. The political fall-out, as well as the protests, continued for months. Nine state senators, including six Republicans and three Democrats, faced recall elections that summer, and the re-election campaign of a conservative-leaning state Supreme Court

 justice became uncharacteristically contentious. The ultimate legacy of the Wisconsin protests, though, was the spurring of a recall initiative against Walker. More than 900,000 signatures were collected to trigger the recall process. Former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett won a difficult Democratic primary May 7, 2012, to run against Walker in the general recall, which was held June 5, 2012. Barrett previously ran for governor against Walker in 2010, so the recall election essentially became a rematch. The historic nature of the recall election was a frequent topic of coverage throughout the process. Nationally, only two state governors have ever been recalled, and no attempt to recall a governor had ever been made previously in Wisconsin. Ultimately, Walker became the first U.S. governor to survive a recall election, winning 53% to Barretts 46%. Almost 60% of Wisconsin voters participated in the recall election, which was the highest turnout ever in the state for a gubernatorial election not tied to a presidential ballot. News media characterized the result of the election in various ways, attributing Walkers win to a lackluster performance by Barrett after a damaging primary, a public validation of Walkers policies, or a process vote where citizens voted against the recall elections rather than for Walker. Newspapers across the state covered the sharp partisan tone throughout the protest season and recall election. Stories of political sign vandalism were not uncommon, and public debate in the form of letters to the editor, newspaper comment forums and social media erupted. Walker was booed at public events unrelated to the campaign. Public school teachers were called communists or whiners in public forums (Robinson, Knisely & Schwartz, 2012).

 While the contentiousness of the recall in general is not in doubt, different communities talked about the election in different ways and appeared to vary in terms of conflict avoidance and tolerance. Certain coverage frames appeared to have more salience than others in particular contexts, and this project will investigate those differences, as well as explore ways to predict which Wisconsin communities relied on which discourse frames during the recall election. Understanding relationships between various community features and local media coverage frames could help partially explain how community residents were persuaded to vote for one candidate or another and whether residents developed a broad community consensus around a particular candidate or not. Why, for example were certain places in Wisconsin, such as Columbia County and Eau Claire County, so split in terms of recall election results? Why were other counties, such as Dane, Menominee or Waukesha, so decisive or one-sided in their results? This project will look for clues to help start answering these questions.

 LITERATURE REVIEW Overview Before considering how public opinion was expressed during the recall election, its necessary to step back and consider how various individual identities can affect political ideology and how those individual identities can aggregate into collective identities with predictable political behaviors. A useful body of literature for beginning to understand how structural elements translate to human perceptions and behaviors comes from social identity theorists. The specific social identities relevant for this case study are geographic- and economic-based identities. Place is political, and where one lives can strongly shape ones ideology and worldviewand this is especially the case in rural contexts. Some place-based identities, however, cannot be separated from their economic contexts. Income, occupation and lifestyle are all various dimensions for classifying class-based identities, and the media can often help to reinforce those identities in various ways. Both geographic- and class-based identities can to some extent predict individual voting behaviors and help rationalize voting decisions that at first glance may not make sense to outsiders. From there, the discussion of geographic- and economic-based identities can scale up to the community level. Structural pluralism theories can help explain how various communities respond to conflict, and certain structural patterns can predict whether a community will avoid or tolerate conflict. The contextual effects literature intersects well with structural pluralism to explain how elements of personal identity can translate to voting behaviors at the neighborhood or community level.

 Local newspapers offer a unique lens into how various social identities came into play in communities across Wisconsin during the recall. A particularly valuable element of these newspapers is the letters to the editor section. While newspaper editors and community members sometimes ridicule letters to the editor, researchers have found that letters can provide a meaningful glimpse into community public opinion. A theoretical justification exists for continuing to evaluate printed local newspapersand specifically letters to the editoreven in an era of media consolidation and digitization. Finally, framing literature provides a scaffold for analyzing local newspaper coverage, and frames developed for this case study are well rooted in previous work.

Social identities and political ideology: Geography, class and occupation Social identity is the part of an individuals identity that is provided via membership in one or more groups and is influenced by the norms of that group (Huddy, 2001; Monroe et al., 2000; Turner et al., 1983). Essentially, social identity theory and self-categorization theory, the offshoot of social identity theory, consider group affiliation as a source of and reinforcing force for individual identity (Karasawa, 1991; Monroe et al., 2000). Social identity theorists tend to focus on the motivations for people to differentiate groups and have found that an individuals self-esteem can be tied to perceptions of their in-group, whereas self-categorization theory looks more at how individuals come to identify and act with a group (Huddy, 2001; Monroe et al., 2000). These theories consider how individuals identify with other in-group members and simultaneously do not identify with or even discriminate against out-group members. Experiments have found that individuals will favor their in-group over an out-

 group under the most minimal constraints (Perreault & Bourhis, 1999; Karasawa, 1991; Turner et al., 1984). Interestingly for this study, political scientists have found that identification with particular social groups is related to political thought and behaviors (Wash, Jennings & Stoker 2004; Campbell et al., 1960). While we must acknowledge that people can and do find the most minimal basis for division, in politics some characteristics typically arise that are more important than others (Oliver, 2001, p. 84). One of those characteristics is the geography of ones community, which contributes not only to the physical borders of that community but also to the borders of its residential social in-group. For example, a New Yorker lives in New York, not Dallas. Community features, such as population size, income, political voting history, occupations and other variables, come together to form particular geographic identities, which can then become political ones. In order to begin constructing a sense what makes up these political places and why they behave in certain ways, its worth considering how broader geographic-based identities, such as rural or suburban identities, can intersect with other identity elements, such as socioeconomic status and occupation.

Geographic-based social identities and political ideology According to Gotham, Like race, class, and gender, places can become important mechanisms through which collective identity is defined and expressed (1999, p. 333). For example, scholars interested in rural culture have found that many rural residents have developed an identity based in part on their geographic residence and distance from broader power institutions. Poor, rural white residents who vote for conservative

 candidates sometimes are doing so in consistency with a worldview that favors hard work, individuality and limited government in general. This identity is sometimes termed redneck culture (Jarosz & Lawson, 2002), and while such an identity can have negative connotations, especially for younger rural residents (Vanderbeck & Dunkley, 2003), rural-based self-identity also can become a guiding perspective for political decisions (Cramer Walsh, 2012). While conducting various case studies of political talk in Wisconsin communities, Cramer Walsh developed the term rural consciousness for this awareness of ones literal place in the political world. She identified various ideas associated with this consciousness, including a consistent lack of trust in the government, as well as feelings of political alienation, including a lack of support or attention from the broader political system in general (Cramer Walsh, 2012). Throughout her fieldwork, Cramer Walsh consistently heard rural residents construct their identity in juxtaposition to urban dwellers: It was common for the people I studied to refer to state government with the shorthand Madison. And it was very common for people in rural areas to boldly state outright disdain of this city, the state capital (Cramer Walsh, 2011, p. 151). Similarly, Gimpel and Karnes found that red versus blue election maps are really displaying urban/rural divides within states: Although on their own, the nation's tiniest burgs do not amount to much, collectively they do cast enough votes to anchor the Electoral College to the Republican candidate in many states (Gimpel & Karnes, 2006, p. 467). Gelman and his colleagues are consistent with this, arguing that geography definitely matters politically. Though red state/blue state divisions are easy media

 heuristics, most states are more geographically divided than they seem thanks to the persistence of real, significant regional differences (Gelman et al., 2007, p. 365). One of these differences is the perception of equity in terms of government spending. Though per capita, rural residents receive an equivalent share of government dollars, in general a perception persists among rural residents that resource distribution is skewed toward urban areas (Cramer Walsh, 2012; Gelman et al., 2007). Whether rural residents receive their fair share or not, the ideology that they are on their own is important. Though rural counties generally have lower median incomes and higher rates of poverty and unemployment than in neighboring counties with higher populations, many rural residents relate to the self-image of independent entrepreneur and property owner, either by nature of agricultural employment or the legacy of home ownership in rural areas (Gimpel & Karnes, 2006, p. 471). The rednecks interviewed in Jarosz and Lawsons ethnography of white rural poverty identified themselves as honest, hardworking and resilient, among other traits (2002), which again reinforce an individualistic, I-earn-my-own-way mentality. In contrast, the rural residents Cramer Walsh interviewed prior to the 2011 Wisconsin protestswhich triggered the recall electioncomplained that state employees received exorbitant health care and pension benefits, despite not having to work very hard. However, this rural sense of individualism was not limited to bluecollar workers in Cramer Walshs interviews. She found that professionals in rural areas still felt more marginalized within the broader state and federal government system than did comparable professionals in suburban communities close to urban areas (Cramer Walsh, 2011).

 In one sense, rural residents have much in common with their counterparts in more affluent suburban communities. Similarly to rural contexts, suburban communities are often isolated, with a racially and politically homogenous population (Oliver, 2001). The difference is that in suburban contexts, such economic isolation is consciously chosen by highly mobile individuals from the middle to upper-middle socioeconomic classes. Though smaller communities typically foster stronger individual feelings of political efficacy than do larger cities in general (Oliver, 2001, p. 65), suburbs are a unique form of small community. In particular, the economic homogeneity of suburban residents reduces overall political conflict within these communities and also re-shapes the type of conflict that persists. One of the effects of the process of segmenting suburbs from the larger urban area via new municipal boundaries has been a transformation of conflict, and issues that previously caused conflict among residents within a community are now conflicts between local governments (Oliver, 2001, p. 5). Suburban and central city residents often find themselves pitted against one another, as suburban residents are more likely to be regional resource power holders and dont identify with inner city residents and their needs (Logan & Molotch, 2007; Dreier, Mollenkopf & Swanstrom, 2001). Suburban residents find themselves competing not with each other but with other communities in order to protect things like municipal services and property values, which can foster an ideology based on conscious isolationism, which is distinct from pragmatic rural individualism. Urban communities are highly complex, and this is where geographic-based identities become perhaps less relevant than other social identities. Diverse groups live in

 urban areas, making it difficult to speculate about a common political ideology based solely on ones status as a resident of a particular metropolis. This is a good opportunity to shift the discussion to socioeconomic status-based identities, which often tie-in closely with geographic-based identities to help form distinctive local worldviews.

Class-based social identities and political ideology Much literature related to geographic and economic identities reference both concepts in conjunction with each other. For example, Gelman and his colleagues discussed geographic identity in the context of a book about relationships between income and voting patterns (Gelman et al., 2007). Though Cramer Walsh ultimately argued that geographic-based identities trump socioeconomic ones, class identities are most certainly an undercurrent in her work as well. Class identity may not directly impact voting behaviors (Manza, Hout & Brooks, 1995), but it can help individuals develop a sense of their personal roles as democratic citizens (Walsh, Jennings & Stoker, 2004). In general, the idea that class can, at the very least, gradually affect political attitudes and behaviors over time by way of helping individuals establish opinions about government dates back decades in political science (Eulau, 1956). LeMasters classic ethnography of a Wisconsin tavern offers qualitative insights into the relationship between class identity and political ideologies. The Club Tavern in Middleton, Wisconsin, publicly claims to have served as the setting for LeMasters work, which analyzed a community in the midst of shifting from a working-class stronghold to a suburban refuge for white-collar professionals employed in Madison. Much dialogue around local events took the form of us-versus-them in reference to the blue-collar

 residents who at times found themselves at odds with middle- and upper-class residents over various community issues. LeMasters noted his surprise at the depth and extent of the suspicion and distrust (1975, p. 199) demonstrated by the tavern patrons toward white-collar workers overall. Especially relevant for this study were the conversations LeMasters recorded about tavern patrons views toward the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus (referred to as the campus in nearby Metropolis) during the massive anti-Vietnam War protests. Though the tavern patrons were, for the most part, personally opposed to the war, as a group they also were resentful of the student protesters, who they perceived as subversive and anti-authority in general. LeMasters even found that anti-protest sentiments caused some patrons to shift to the right during the 1968 presidential election (1975, p. 181). While the Vietnam War era was a very different situation from the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall, some parallels exist in terms of the discourse around the appropriateness of protesting as a response to a controversial political situation. In 2012, many editorials and letters to the editor focused on whether the recall was warranted or was simply a demonstration of liberal crybabies who didnt get their way. Such perceptions are similar to LeMasters historical accounts of blue-collar complaints about entitled students who failed to recognize their privileges (1975, p. 181). One fundamental element of the blue-collar worldview that LeMasters identified is acutely political: pragmatism, which sounds very similar to Cramer Walshs more recent findings on perceptions related to the government in other Wisconsin communities. For example:

 If you are earning a living with your hands, then a thing either works or it doesnt White-collar people dont usually operate within such a neat system: did the high school teacher do a good job this semester or not? the men at The Oasis dont care much about theory or promises: does the damn thing work?, they ask. This attitude tends to make them fatalistic or cynical about government and politics because, as they see it, very few of the programs established by government agencies seem to be very effective (LeMasters, 1975, p. 186). However, elites do not always view working-class political behaviors as logical and consistent with an identifiable worldview. A contemporary political debate around working-class political behavior stemmed from the publication of Whats the Matter with Kansas? in 2005, which claimed that Republicans duped working-class people into voting against their rational economic interests in favor of voting for candidates who promised to uphold socially conservative values during the early- and mid-2000s. The book sparked a lively academic debate about whether this pattern was true, as well Franks underlying explanation for it: Were working-class people voting for Republicans as a backlash against liberal principles of irresponsible hedonism (Frank, 2005)? While a few of Franks explanations about the working-class worldview are somewhat consistent with some of the research on working-class ideology discussed here, most scholars consider the book a gross oversimplification of partisanship affiliation in America (Bartels, 2006). Either way, the perception that it is irrational to vote Republican if one is not wealthy persists, and this messaging of working class co-option and irrationality was on display during the Wisconsin recall, especially in the Madison media. Though LeMasters subjects identified openly as blue collar or working class, the most prevalent class identity in the United States is that of the middle class. The middle class is the normative economic ideal in U.S. culture (Bullock, Wyche &

 Williams, 2001), and politicians are especially cognizant of the importance in connecting with the middle classeither by identifying themselves as part of the middle class or by promising actions to benefit this class and look out for its interests (Kendall, 2011; Gelman et al., 2007). Estimates find that at least half, if not slightly more, of all Americans from a wide range of income levels self-identify as members of the middle class (U.S. Department of Congress, 2010; Pew, 2012). Differentiating between working class and middle class is problematic, as individuals with the same income and education levels can self-identity as members of different classes (Walsh, Jennings & Stoker, 2004, p. 472). Yet as Wong argued, the limits of an imagined community have to be based on something more tangible than sentiment alone (2010, p. 30). Some sort of attempt at defining the middle class is necessary in order to discuss how this class designation can affect political ideology. Income-based class designations are a common method for delineating working class and middle class, though again, such designations are problematic. Delineating between middle and working class becomes even more muddled when lower middle class is inserted between the two strata. Lower-middle-class identity is sometimes described as an undesirable non-identity (Felski, 2000) whose members often simply self-identify as middle class. However, this project is not well served by nitpicking income-based class designations, especially when the 2011 average median income in Wisconsin was around $52,000almost spot on with the 2011 average median income in the United States. While some academics classify a middle- class household income at about $70,000 (Gilbert, 2008), representatives from a White House middle class task force have stated that an income at around $50,000 is certainly going

 to be considered a middle-class income (Bernstein, 2009). Many scholars argue that income is far from the only way to differentiate the middle class. Lifestyle choices are another popular form of demarcating middle-class members (Gelman et al., 2007). Kendall considers some college education, significant skills and occupations with loose supervision as markers of a middle-class existence (Kendall, 2011, p. 170). Consistent with in-group/out-group literature, which finds evidence for stronger in-group identities when a clear, distinct out-group is present (Huddy, 2001), some researchers have found that middle-class identities are actually constructed as an alternative to other class identities, namely the working class (Mantsios, 2003; Kendall, 2011). Media, of course, can come into play in terms of portraying and reinforcing these distinctions, and this will be discussed later. The difficulty of defining the middle class extends to the difficulty of identifying markers of this classs political ideology. One political characteristic of the middle class that distinguishes its members from the working class is a higher level of political participation overall (Walsh, Jennings & Stoker, 2004; Eulau, 1956). Beyond this, the middle class becomes fundamentally political when it is considered as the petty bourgeoisie situated between the proletariat and the more traditional bourgeoisie (Burris, 1999). By nature of being situated between these two class strata, this class inherently forms a rough ideological unity characterized by competitive individualism, reformism and a belief in the neutrality of the state as an arbiter of competing class interests (Burris, 1999, p. 312). Similarly, if the middle class is conceptualized as the American class norm, then it seems fair to superimpose general American democratic values onto that normative class. Some of these broad values include concepts like consent,

 accountability, limited government, representation, majority rule, and individual selfdetermination, among others (McClosky, 1964). The third class with tangible political power is the upper class. In general, wealthy Americans tend to support the Republican Party, which is considered consistent with their income-based interests (Gelman, 2009). However, nowhere is the political impact of the intersection of geography and class more pronounced than in the upper class. According to Gelmans landmark study of contemporary class and income patterns, income is not a strong predictor of individual votes in general. However, a trend is emerging for wealthier individuals living in richer, urban states to vote for Democratic candidates, while wealthier individuals living in poorer, more rural states continue to vote for Republican candidates. More broadly: [E]conomic issues might well be more salient in poorer states such as Mississippi, and so one would expect voting there to be more income-based. Conversely, in richer states, such as Connecticut, voters might be more likely to follow noneconomic cues (Gelman, 2009, p. 74). Gelmans book focuses mostly on the extremes that best highlight his key findingnamely, Connecticut and Mississippi. Ohio is used as the exemplar of a middleincome state, and Wisconsin appears to track closely with Ohio in the authors 50-state analysis. Unfortunately, there is little discussion of or explanation for trends in middleincome states beyond an acknowledgment that Midwest trends (in terms of relationships between income and voting patterns) are more mixed than in other regions of the country, such as the Deep South and the Northeast. Wisconsin, like Ohio, is slightly above the national average in terms of the median income levels used in the book, so it stands to reason that Wisconsin is partly witnessing the trend for wealthier residents to

 vote Democratic, though perhaps not to a large degree. Ultimately, though, class identities cannot be superimposed onto subjects, even when income levels are known. Class identities are subjective and perceptual and the impact of such identities on political behavior is difficult to tease out. As Gimpel and Karnes have found, Actual monetary income plays a relatively small role in economic evaluations compared to self-perceived economic status (2006, p. 469).

Media portrayals of class and certain occupations Media depictions of various class groups can help reinforce in-group desirability and out-group undesirability (Mantsios, 2003). Class- and occupation-based identities are especially salient in the media and political messaging and, again, are often interweaved with coverage of geographic political variation. For example, red-versus-blue voting maps often highlight regional variation, and often imply economic-related voting variation in addition. However, not all classes are covered equally. The media are often criticized for covering poverty-related issues differently and less frequently than issues related to upper- and middle-class people (Kendall, 2011, p. 119). Those living in poverty also are framed as deviant from the middle-class norm, and poor people are often portrayed in the media according to various stereotypes, such as the welfare queen, criminal, drug-user or dysfunctional parent/partner, among others (Bullock, Wyche & Williams, 2001). The middle class dominates class-related discourse in the media, which is unsurprising as, again, almost the majority of Americans self-identity as members of the middle class. Mantsios has found that middle-class Americans are depicted as different

 from working class people in a variety of ways, including manners and values (2003). Kendall has identified three prevalent media frames related the middle class: middle-class values are the backbone of the country, middle-class Americans are experiencing a squeeze, and middle-class Americans are victimized by both the upper and working class (2011). One of these backbone middle-class values is hardworking. Occupational identity was a noteworthy component of the discourse surrounding the Wisconsin protests and subsequent recall election. Teachers in particular were frequent characters in coverage of the protests, as their pensions and bargaining rights (along with the pensions and bargaining rights of all other public sector employees except police officers and firefighters) were the main targets of Act 10. Throughout 2011 and 2012, teachers were often discussed in tandem with public sector workers or public union employees. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13.3% of wage and salary workers in Wisconsin belonged to any labor union in 2011. Nationally, public sector unions have the highest union membership rate at 37%, which is more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers who belong to a union. Also, workers in education, training and libraries had the highest level of occupational union membership. Consistent with these trends, then, it would be expected that references to teachers, public sector workers and other union members would be used interchangeably, and it is also likely that if a Wisconsinite encounters a union member in daily life, that member probably belongs to a public sector union. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census data, in communities where average median incomes are well below the Wisconsin average,

 government employees often make wages that are higher than their neighbors. Couple this with the tendency for residents in rural communities to adopt an individualistic ideology that discourages government hand-outs, and its possible that occupational identities and perceptions of those occupations could make up a significant portion of conflict discourse during the recall in some newspapers, especially those in rural contexts or communities with high rates of poverty and unemployment. Most research about media portrayals of public school teachers addresses film and fictional television series depictions (Beyerbach, 2005; Raimo, Devlin-Scherer & Zinicola, 2002). According to Swetnam, teacher portrayals are often stereotypical, such as the autocrat, jerk or clown teacher. Even positive portrayals are unrealistic and rely on depictions of heroic, superhuman teachers who serve essentially as social workers for their students. Some scholars argue such fictional stereotypes could impact public perceptions of teachers and education systems as a whole, which could translate to decreased public support (Swetnam, 1992, p. 30). Studies on the impact of teacher portrayals in news media are sparse, but Cohen found that similarly to fictionalized representations, professional identity depictions might function as a link between what happens in the black boxes of schools and wider policy debates about education. Talk about teachers, therefore, is likely to be especially effective for mobilizing public opinion about education (Cohen, 2010, p. 106). Cohen found that during the large-scale policy reforms of No Child Left Behind, one daily Chicago newspaper often associated schoolsand by extension teacherswith terms like failure and missed the mark and accountability. Conversely, though, teachers also were associated with terms like caring, as illustrated through anecdotes and examples of teachers going to

 extraordinary lengths for their students (Cohen, 2010). Such contradictions in media portrayals of teachers turn them into a blank slate of sorts for public opinion. Anecdotally, teachers may be beloved, but institutionally, they are a target for blame and suspicion. The public reputation of labor unions and union workers also is affected by media portrayals. Labor unions typically become newsworthy during strikes, which offer the sensational and dramatic appeal of a direct confrontation or serve as indicators of broader poor economic conditions in a particular region (Flynn, 2000, p. 140). Various studies have highlighted the potential effects of media coverage on unions. Firstly, media coverage can affect the collective bargaining process itself, as Flynn has found evidence that increased media attention can increase the duration of strikes (2000). Some studies have found that most media coverage related to labor unions focuses on strikes at the expense of other union activities and that media sometimes exaggerate the frequency of strikes, which has a negative influence on public opinion of labor unions (Schmidt, 1993). Some have gone so far as to partially attribute declines in union membership levels to the bad news bias in labor union coverage (Erickson & Mitchell, 1996). In an era of declining membership, Puettes claim that the public is learning more about union activities from news and fictional media coverage and less from direct experience as union members or contact with union members certainly seems plausible (1992). Schmidt made a similar point in her discussion of how public opinion toward interest groups, including unions, is mostly formed by media coverage of those groups (1993, p. 152). Media-influenced negative opinions about labor unions date back at least 35 years, as LeMasters heard complaints about union leaders in the Middleton tavern:

 There is no idealism left in the trade union movement for these men. They have read too many news stories about dishonest union officials to place any great faith in their union leaders. Its a goddamn racket, like any other racket, one man of his union (LeMasters, 1975, p. 184). From individuals to communities: The impact of geographic and economic contexts on political engagement Though debate exists about whether homogenous political environments and social networks foster or inhibit political engagement (Campbell, 2006; Mutz, 2002), a growing body of research is finding that economic, racial and cultural diversity within a community contributes to more robust political engagement overall (Gimpel, Lay & Schuknect, 2003; Oliver, 2001; Burbank, 1997). In these communities different groups clash more regularly over issues like public spending, so political conflict becomes more frequent and by extension, so does political involvement (Oliver, 2001, p. 93). The increased frequency of political conflict in larger (more pluralistic) communities is consistent with the theory of structural pluralism, which has found that conflict tolerance is higher in communities where conflict is more frequent (Tichenor, Donohue & Olien, 1980). In this sense, then, geographic and economic identities, along with racial and cultural ones, mesh to form political behaviors and ideologies within particular local contexts, based in strong part on the structural elements of those contexts. Structural pluralism is defined, essentially, as a multiplicity of power centers serving diverse interest groups (Nah & Armstrong, 2006; Donohue, Olien & Tichenor 1985b). Pluralistic communities are complex, grow rapidly and demonstrate a diversity of specialized interests and institutions (Olien, Tichenor, Donohue, Sandstrom & McLeod, 1990). Structural pluralists pay special attention to economic and power structures within a community, and a degree of pluralism measures the level of differentiation in a social

 system among institutional and specialized interest groups in a way that determines potential sources of organized social power within a community (Tichenor, Donohue & Olien, 1980). Researchers at the University of Minnesota developed the theory of structural pluralism in the 1970s and 80s to explain how structural elements could predict media a host of media-related factors, including the attitudes and performance of journalists, the content of news coverage, and audience responses to media messages. Structural pluralists found that newspapers mirror the society, as local media were likely to mirror the conditions of various societal contexts, including power conditions and alignments (Tichenor, Donohue & Olien, 1980). This emphasis on the effect of community characteristics on local media, rather than the local media's effect on society, is a key contribution of this theory to the communications field (Nah & Armstrong, 2011). One of the core hypotheses in this literature is that the less pluralistic the community, the more likely citizens will be served by weekly newspapers and rely on television news. More pluralistic communities are more likely to be served by daily newspapers, and residents will be more likely to rely on those papers rather than television as sources of information (Olien, Donohue & Tichenor, 1978). This includes conflict coverage, as small weekly papers in less pluralistic communities are more likely to emphasize positive local events rather than delve into contentious issues, which is more common in larger, more pluralistic communities served by daily papers. Newspapers in less pluralistic communities are more likely to attempt to find and reinforce public consensus around an issue, as indicated by a series of case studies by Tichenor's team on issues like regional planning and power lines in agriculture fields,

 among others. Less pluralistic communities are more likely to display conflict avoidance or downplay conflict contentiousness, as conflict is perceived to be more damaging in communities that are small, rural and kept together by a close network of integrated social ties (Tichenor, Donohue & Olien, 1980). Much current research related to structural pluralism has focused on debating and testing which indicators should be used to determine a pluralism index. Traditionally, indicators have included population size, the number of businesses in a community, the number of churches, and the number of civic organizations, to name a few. More recent work argues that additional dimensions, such as ethnic diversity (Hindman, Littlefield, Preston & Neumann, 1999) leadership demographics (Armstrong, 2006), and corporate newspaper ownership (Demers, 1998) also are important. Structural pluralism intersects well with a small body of literature in political science known as contextual effects. This literature stems in part from Baudet and Lazarsfelds study of Erie County, Ohio, which found people were more influenced by political messages that were filtered through community power players, or opinion leaders, than by messages simply presented in mass media (1944). Building from this basic premise that elements within local social environments impact individual political behaviors, contextual effects researchers have developed the perceptual hypothesis, which argues that people are influenced by the perceptions they form about the political views of others (Burbank, 1995). For example, people will infer the partisan leanings of a particular neighborhood within a community if political yard signs of bumper stickers are present (Huckfeldt & Sprague, 1992). From here, then, Burbank says:

 Contextual effects result when the attributes of other people are politically relevant, when those attributes create a bias in the information that people encounter, and when that information influences what people believe or how they act (Burbank, 1997, p. 113). More broadly, contextual effects work has found that elements of personal identity and history can affect the likelihood of political participation, impressions of efficacy and tolerance of others (Gimpel, Lay & Schuknecht, 2003). In particular, neighborhoods with high voter turnout also demonstrate the highest level of political knowledgeeven after controlling for individual partisanship (Gimpel & Lay, 2005).

Local media as a space for political engagement Though media concentration continues to increase, most U.S. communities are still served by some form of local media (Missouri School of Journalism, 2011) and hyper-local news sites comprise a growing market for online journalism. In an era of online forums and various social media outlets connected to media enterprises, one of the oldest features of American newspapersthe letters to the editor sectionmay seem like an anachronistic component of modern newspapers. Letter writers typically skew older than non-writers in their communities (Hart, 2001), and it is not uncommon for newspaper editors, and even broader community members, to characterize letter writers as fringe members of society who dont or cant make meaningful contributions to public discourse. For example, Wahl-Jorgensen found that editors at a San Francisco daily newspaper considered letter writers to be insane or crazy: The idiom of insanity is employed to poke fun of and distance the staff from the letter- writers by suggesting, in a variety of different ways, that they are insane. This is not to say that the editorial page staff truly believe that either letter-writers or citizens are generally insane. It is only to suggest that the staffs discussion of

 public participation is limited to a certain register of meaning and that their view of letter-writers, in turn, affects their view of the readership as a whole (WahlJorgenson, 2002a, p. 189). This perception of letter writers, however, is at odds with other studies in which opinion editors characterize the role of the letters to the editor section as a public sphere or democratic space for public debate and information sharing (Perrin & Vasey, 2008; Feyer 2003; Feyer 2004). Additionally, though much of the focus in letters to the editor studies is on how editors select letters, some studies also have considered how letters actually can influence editors and newspaper writers (see Shoemaker and Mayfield, 1987). For example, Pritchard and Berkowitz found that the level of attention to crime in letters to the editor predicted attention to crime in editorials and front-page news in several large daily newspapers, and they interpreted these results as suggesting that letters to the editor are more important for understanding newspaper coverage than previously realized (Pritchard & Berkowitz, 1991, p. 394). This is consistent with broader discussions of how perceptions of public opinion influences newspaper editors, who often try to stay in step with their communitys leanings, via the cascade model (Entman, 2003a; Entman, 2003b). By maintaining a space for public discourse, letters to the editor sections also can help tighten bonds between newspapers and readers (Wahl-Jorgensen, 2002a). Many scholars continue to reinforce perceptions of letters to the editor as hazy reflections of public opinion (Grey & Brown, 1970, p. 450), though issues of whether letters are authentic or genuinely grassroots expressions of public opinion exist for letters that are prepared by advocacy groups or copied and circulated to multiple papers

 by on individual during an election (Reader, 2008; Richardson & Franklin, 2004). Regardless of whether all letters to the editor in a given newspaper serve as a truly representative slice of public opinion in a communityespecially a larger, urban oneat the very least the letters do serve as additional pieces of topic-specific coverage, which simply by nature of being published in print versions of the newspaper are lent a certain level of credibility and prominence. Letters also are typically published online in some form with permanent URLs, which again gives them more prominence than a typical comment left below a digital article. Even if editors privately deride a letter writers views, they are providing the author with a public platform that can perhaps help inform other readers on dimensions of the election that may or may not be represented in traditional coverage. Additionally, perhaps contrary to perceptions of letters as an outdated form of political engagement, some editors are finding that email makes it easier for people to submit letters, thereby increasing the volume of letters received daily (Raeymaeckers, 2005). Several scholars characterize letters as part of a newspapers agenda setting or gatekeeping function within a community. Medium- to large-size dailies are typically more selective in terms of publishing submitted letters (Perrin, 2008; Hart, 2001; WahlJorgensen, 2002b). If larger papers serve as stronger gatekeepers or agenda setters in terms of selecting letters for publication, then in a sense those letters almost become another form of heavily editedand even biased (Perrin & Vaisey, 2008)newspaper coverage. Wahl-Jorgensens studies on the selection of letters to the editor in urban newspapers found that editors publish letters based on relevance, brevity, entertainment and authority (2002b). Novelty is also a key element for some editors; the chance of a

 letter getting published is higher if it presents new arguments or advances a public debate in a new way (Raeymaeckers, 2005). By contrast, small-town papers tend to publish up to 90% of submitted letters (Perrin & Vaisey, 2008; Hart, 2001). As seen in this study, letters often make up a significant percentage of political or public policy coverage in small towns, and in the case of the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall, letters were sometimes the only recall-related pieces published beyond basic election results. This makes the letters in small-town papers a more crucial component of the election coverage than letters in the larger papers, which often provided daily articles related to the election anyway. One feature of letters to the editor that is distinct from news coverage is tone, as letters are not expected to be objective or even civil. Via a hierarchical cluster analysis of letters to a North Carolina paper, Perrin and Vaisey found support for the hypothesis that letters addressing local topics adopted a more professional, respectful and personal tone than letters addressing more distant or nonlocal issues. These findings were used as support for a broader claim that public spheres are bifurcated by topic, and that [c]itizens who aspire to enter one of these parallel public spheres adjust their argumentative style to the norms of the particular subpublic they seek to address (Perrin & Vaisey, 2008, p. 803). However, the Wisconsin gubernatorial election was a unique local event that was especially contentious in many communities across the state. One popular media refrain during the recall was that the election was dividing Wisconsinites. In such a context, it seems unlikely that Perrin and Vaiseys hypothesis will hold up and instead, its likely that letters to the editor related to the recall election, which often was portrayed as having

 local significance in various ways, would be more hostile than other letters published at that time. Additionally, many of the demographic variables Perrin and Vaisey identified as predicting letter writing coverage also dont appear to fit the Wisconsin context. For example, Perrin and Vaisey found that older writers and liberal-leaning writers are less likely to write about local topics. Instead, they found that women were more likely than men to write about local issues and also to adopt a more civil tone (Perrin & Vaisey, 2008). While the gender and age of letter writers will not be considered in this study, the partisan leanings of letter writers will be addressed, and it is predicted that partisanship will not significantly predict tone. This study is a unique contribution to the discussion of the role of letters to the editor in that it will consider letters in papers across multiple communities of many sizes. This study also will not isolate letters but instead consider them as part of the holistic body of coverage produced by the paper during the recall election. Letters to the editor in smaller communities, then, offer a special lens into community discourse around local and nonlocal events, and without the letters, it would be difficult to glean any insight into the nature of the election frames used in smaller communities. For this reason, letters to the editor are included in this studys sample and are in fact over-represented in the sample thanks to the heavy volume of letters present in small papers. This will be discussed more in the methods section.

Framing the Wisconsin recall in local media Approaches to studying frames vary as widely as do explicit definitions of frames. Tankard articulated the list of frames approach, which involves looking at the media

 content itself and providing coders with a list of indicators to identify a wide range of frames per article. Specifically, he advises the development of a list of keywords, catchphrases and symbols for detecting each frame (Tankard, 2001). Additionally, Semetko and Valkenburg outlined inductive-versus-deductive approaches for frame analyses. While inductive approaches can be labor intensive and difficult to replicate (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000), its a method that does lend itself well to small samples. An inductive approach is especially appropriate for the Wisconsin case, as this project is most interested in identifying case-specific frames rather than fitting the Wisconsin content into frames previously identified in other studies. However, despite this casespecific emphasis, the five frame categories developed for coding the Wisconsin sample do track in various ways with previous studies, and trying to fit these frame categories into existing frame theories illustrates the wide range and diversity of frame conceptualizations. The frame categories that will be used in this study include: conflict frames, economic frames, social discord frames, political process frames and policy frames. Specific topics that fall under these categories and mechanisms for identifying these frames will be discussed more in depth in the methods section. Meta-analysis has found that the omnipresent conflict frame (Van Gorp, 2010, p. 157) is the most frequently reported generic frame (Matthes, 2009). The conflict frame highlights tension between individuals, groups or institutions (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). The flexibility of this frame likely contributes to its high frequency, and journalists often choose to identify and highlight oppositional forces out of habit (Tankard, 2001; Smith, 1997). Economic consequence frames are also in the top five frames reported by Matthes (2009). These

 frames articulate financial impacts for individuals, groups or countries. Similarly to conflict frames, economic frames are fairly common in everyday news coverage (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000; Neuman et al. 1992). Political process frames are conceptualized here as a variation of Entmans procedural frames, which look at the techniques, successes and representativeness of political actors (Entman, 2003b). Frames looking at particular events, such as elections, poll results, debates or voting logistic changes, also lend themselves well to the episodic dimension of Iyengars frame theory, which focuses on very recent events or occurrences (Iyengar, 1991). Similarly, the policy-specific frames used in this project closely resemble issue-specific frames (see Capella & Jamieson, 1997), which dominate the field of frame studies. Matthes found that 78% of framing studies identified issue-specific frames, compared to 22% reporting generic frames (2009). Some scholars even use the word issue to define frames. For example, Gamson and Croteau define frames as a storyline about an issue (1992), and Bennett termed frames as scenarios, (1978). The social discord frame developed for this study is essentially a conflict frame with a morality twist that is highly specific to the Wisconsin case in terms of the particular language, metaphors and catchphrases it includes. According to Semetko and Valkenburg, a morality frame situates an event or issue within a religious or moral prescription and may offer a social solution for the issue (2000). In Wisconsin, again, much discourse surrounded the divisiveness of the recall election and called for cultural reunification in various ways. The perceived reality (Entman, 2003b) of a divided culture inherently acknowledges some form of conflict frame but characterizes that conflict in terms of its social consequences or human impact frames (Neuman et al., 1992), rather

 than simply identifying antagonistic forces. That additional moral dimension takes the social discord frame category beyond a more straightforward conflict one.

HYPOTHESES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This project is especially interested in how community features affect the frames and characteristics of articles related to the Wisconsin recall. Structural pluralism is the theory that most explicitly links community features to media characteristics, and various relationships between pluralism indicators and the Wisconsin recall coverage will be explored in this project. In keeping with structural pluralism, a series of hypotheses have been developed. Key elements of the theory that have informed these hypotheses include the trend for less pluralistic communities to demonstrate more conflict-avoidant tendencies than more pluralistic communities. According to structural pluralism theories, less pluralistic communities are less tolerant of conflict because conflict is typically more harmful in communities with smaller, more rural populations tied together via personal connections. Less pluralistic communities are expected to demonstrate coverage patterns consistent with conflict avoidance Therefore: H1a. Fewer conflict frames will be present as compared to more pluralistic communities. H1b. Similarly, less pluralistic communities will demonstrate a higher percentage of process-oriented frames as compared to more pluralistic communities. Though news coverage in less pluralistic communities often downplays or lacks information about conflict at all, there are times when civic conflict is unavoidable. In

 those instances, a communitys level of tolerance with conflict is especially likely to be on display in its local media. It is predicted that less pluralistic communities, which overall are expected to be less conflict tolerant in general, will express discomfort via news coverage preoccupied with the social impact of the conflict rather than the specific conflict dimensions. Specifically, then: H1c. Less pluralistic communities will have more social discord frames than more pluralistic communities. For example, civil unrest, vandalism and other forms of public hostility will make up a larger percentage of news coverage in these communitieseven if those incidents are occurring at a comparable rate in metropolitan areas. Consistent with class-based and occupation-based identity literatures, it is also expected that occupations especially relevant to the recall debate will impact coverage. The recall was a product of protests over legislation related to government workers, and much media coverage focused on teachers and public union members. Additionally, the rural perspective would predict that rural identity as marked by agricultural employment could also affect political ideology and therefore the specific conflict frames dominant in more rural communities. Therefore: H2. Occupational indicators, specifically the percentage of government workers and agricultural employment in each county, are expected to predict conflict frames as well as policy frames. Frames are the dependent variables most of interest for this study, but article characteristics may also be explained by structural pluralism indicators. The predictions related to conflict avoidance outlined in H1 may appear to support a hypothesis that small-town papers would be more civil and less contentious overall than metro papers,

 since again, conflict is often downplayed in less pluralistic contexts. However, smalltown newspapers, which are more likely to be published weekly or twice weekly, provided far fewer news articles overall as compared to larger, daily metropolitan newspapers. Instead, much of the recall discourse in small-town papers came via letters to the editor. Since small-town editors typically run a higher percentage of letters received than do metropolitan editors, its expected that such letters will be a particularly valuable lens into the nature of conflict discourse in various Wisconsin communities. These letters are inherently more emotional in tone than news stories. Therefore: H3. Letters to the editor will comprise a higher percentage of coverage in less pluralistic communities, which by extension will cause a higher frequency of emotional tone overall in these counties. Finally, a series of research questions was developed in order to explore relationships between other various community features and discourse frame patterns. Communities are made up of individuals, so indicators related to various social identities will be considered. Geographic and economic indicators are in many ways similar to pluralism indicators, but in keeping with the concept of pluralism as a measure of power center diversity, variables that contribute more directly to understanding a communitys institutional make-up will be considered together as pluralism, whereas other variables that are more case-specific will be looked at separately. It is expected that these research questions will help provide additional nuance for understanding results related to the hypotheses outlined above. The research questions include:

 R1. Does geographic location affect the specifics of community coverage of a contentious political event, as would be predicted from geographic-based identity literature? Specifically, does the distance to Madison affect frame patterns? R2. Do particular news frames correlate with county partisan identity? Or, do Republican- or Democratic-leaning communities use different frame categories? R3. Consistent with theories about class identity and how income is related to voting patterns, economic indicators are expected to predict voting outcomes. However, can economic indicators also predict news frames? If so, what frames are related to economic indicators?

 CHAPTER 2 METHODS Unit of analysis Counties are a useful unit of analysis for this project because they offer a straightforward set of geographic boundaries and readily available U.S. Census data exists at the county level. More conceptually, counties are big enough but not too big for looking at regional differences within a state. A rural county located in the northernmost portion of Wisconsin functions fairly differently from a more urbanized county near the southern border with Illinois. However, it would be difficult to quantify northern-versussouthern or western-versus-eastern Wisconsin cultures because no real borders exist representing these dimensions. Counties are more measurable and are likely to form a gradient of trends representative of their respective state regions anyway. A snapshot of the similarities and differences among Wisconsins 72 counties in terms of conflict tolerance can be found in the local papers of these communities. This project attempted to collect Wisconsin recall coverage from every county seat newspaper. Though many small town residents regularly read newspapers from larger communities, the small-town papers are useful for looking at hyper-local conversations. The letters to the editor and editorials in particular offer especially unique insights into public discourse happening in small towns.

Sample collection The original plan for this project was to rely on online archives in order to collect all recall-related coverage between May 8 and June 6, 2012. Search terms used in the

 online archives included recall, Walker and Barrett, as well as combinations of these terms. The time frame was chosen because the recall primary election was held May 7, which officially kicked off the general recall election cycle. The recall election itself was held June 5. As this project was most interested in discourse related to an inprogress issue, it made sense to only look at articles published during the heat of the moment. Though plenty of coverage related to the recall was published well before May 7 and long after June 5, the sheer volume of coverage during the official election season was more than sufficient for building a sample that allowed for initial analysis of discourse patterns. Exceptions were made for weekly papers, which often did not post official election results until a week or in some cases two weeks past June 5. Many small communities, however, do not maintain a functional digital archive for newspapers, and at least one does not even maintain a website. Fortunately, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association hosts a digital archive of all its partner papers, which includes most county seat newspapers. Called the Wisconsin Newspaper Digital Resource Site, the archive preserves every page from every newspaper in the collection as a PDF, forming essentially an online microfiche system. This allowed for easy scrolling through each issue of each paper of interest. However, the process of actually capturing and organizing files was fairly cumbersome and therefore less optimal than newspaper-specific archive systems. Every page from a newspaper in the WNA collection with an article, editorial or letter to the editor related to the recall election was collected. Articles were deemed as recall-relevant if they mentioned Gov. Scott Walker in combination with a reference to his upcoming recall election, mentioned Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, or included the

 word recall even if neither candidate was specified by name. Articles that were only about state senate recall races or only about the lieutenant gubernatorial recall were not collected, but articles that referenced the gubernatorial recall in addition to one of these other races were included. Functional online newspaper archives and the Wisconsin Newspaper Digital Resource Site yielded the majority of the collection. However, a handful of papers were not available via either approach. Specifically, newspapers owned by the Gannett Company, Inc., were unavailable in any academic database, and a variety of methods were used to collect coverage from these papers. For example, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers from another project related to Wisconsin recall coverage collected articles from the Green Bay Press Gazette, the Gannett flagship publication, as well as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Wisconsin State Journal and a handful of the other metropolitan-area newspapers while the recall election was in progress during spring 2012. The author was affiliated with this team and therefore had access to the articles in that collection. Additionally, research field trips were conducted to collect the remaining Gannett newspapers. The Appleton Post-Crescent, The Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter and the Fond du Lac Reporter were collected via local community library microfiche and physical newspaper archives during January 2013. This collection process yielded 1,724 articles from 71 newspapers. One county is not represented in this collection: all issues of The Bayfield County Journal were available via the WNA archive, but the paper included no coverage related to the recall

 during the sample period. See Appendix E for an inventory of Wisconsins counties, the paper chosen from each county and the number of articles collected from that paper.

Sample selection Up to five articles from each newspaper were coded for various recall-related news frames. Seventeen newspapers published less than five articles related to the recall during the sample time frame, and so all recall-related articles in these papers were coded. Using a random number generator, five articles were selected from the remaining 54 papers. This approach yielded a collection of 331 articles, which was manageable for manual coding but still large enough to at least begin exploring the research questions of interest. While this approach did not allow for a comprehensive look at recall coverage in large-circulation and daily newspapers (a project limitation), it did ensure the oversampling of papers from small and rural communities, which were key communities of interest. The sample selection included news articles, news analysis, editorials and letters to the editor. This project was most interested in determining which recall frames were present in various communities, and what messages residents were reading when they opened their local newspapers. For this reason, each papers coverage was collected holistically, and a random sample was drawn from that coverage regardless of article type or whether a professional reporter or local citizen wrote the piece. See Appendix F for an inventory of how many articles of each type were coded from each paper.

 Independent variables In addition to the collection of news articles, various county demographic and voting data were also collected via the U.S. Census, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board and other sources specified below. See Table 1 for an overview of all predictors used as independent variables. Structural pluralism was measured by looking at county seat newspaper circulation, county population, county seat population, county population density (persons per square mile), distance to nearest MSA (metropolitan statistical area), and county non-agricultural employment. Newspaper circulation numbers for all but the Menominee County paper were found via the American Newspaper Representatives and Mondo Times. (The Menominee Nation News websites link to advertising information remained broken throughout this project). Data for the distance to MSA indicator was calculated by measuring via Google Maps how far in miles a county seat is located from the city center of the nearest MSA. Median county income, percent of the county population with a bachelors degree and percent of the county population that is not white were also considered as pluralism indicators for this study, as these factors also illustrate a communitys structural composition. Diversity, as measured by the percentage of white non-Hispanic county residents, was a difficult variable to conceptualize, as ethnic diversity in most Wisconsin counties is very low. In some counties, high percentages of American Indian residents means the percentages of white residents are low, but this does not indicate diversity, as these are still homogenous counties in terms of ethnicity. While problematic, this variable at least served as some sort of lens, albeit a foggy one, into county racial diversity.


Table 1 Descriptive statistics for independent variables Std. Deviation 23869.474 133113.819 76937.34 11.50096 6.971 474.076 8213.932 30.2457 3.07239

Minimum Pluralism indicators Newspaper circulation County population County seat population Non-white percent of county population Percent of county population with bachelor's degree Persons per square mile Median county income Miles to nearest MSA Percent of county population not employed in agriculture Case-specific indicators Government workers as a percent of county workforce Miles to Madison Economic vitality indicators Percent of county population in poverty Percent of county workforce unemployed Voting indicators Republican recall election outcome Closeness of recall outcome Partisan shifts since 2000 1000 4348 490 2 10 8 31076 0 86.4

Maximum 185710 952532 597867 88 45 3926 75064 113 99.5

Mean 11766.14 79330.1 28526 9.8472 20.06 164.71 48199.21 69.0139 95.1764

7 0

38 323

12.99 145.04

4.284 76.845

4 2

32 12

11.72 4.35

4.149 1.291

0 0 0

1 1 5

0.01 .01 2.03

0.118 .118 1.529

Note: N=72

The pluralism indicators were combined into a pluralism index since so many indicators were closely correlated (Cronbachs Alpha = .873). See Table 2 for the correlation matrix between pluralism variables. Specifically, circulation, county

 population, county seat population, persons per square mile and circulation were strongly correlated ( > .3, p < .01), and percent of county population with bachelors degrees, percent of county population not employed in agriculture, percent of county population non-white and median county income were also correlated ( > .3, p < .05). The models reliability did not improve significantly by removing any of these variables. Additional independent variables included unemployment and poverty measures for each county, as well as partisanship and partisan volatility. A Republican victory was coded as 1, whereas a Democratic victory was coded as 0 in each major election from 2000-2012, including the recall. The number of times a county shifted from red to blue or back again over these elections was also calculated. Political cohesion was measured by looking at the absolute values of difference between the percentages of votes garnered by the two leading candidates in every gubernatorial and presidential election between 2000 and 2012. The average of closeness indicates a higher or lower level of cohesion; a larger difference indicates a more decisive victory or a more cohesive political environment, whereas a smaller difference indicates a closer, more contentious election. Union membership was used as an independent variable, as the recall revolved heavily around labor issues. Unfortunately, the U.S. Census Current Population Survey does not make county-level union membership numbers readily available online or via traditional labor statistics reports. The number of government workers in a county was used as a proxy for public sector union membership, though it of course is not a direct substitute, as plenty of government workers are not unionized.

 Dependent variables As outlined in the above section on framing, five categories of frames were developed for coding articles. The lists of specific subframes included in each category were developed by various incarnations of pilot coding and reading random article selections pulled from the full collection. The subframes were the specific ways in which the broader frames were expressed in news and editorial content. See Table 3 for an overview. Additional dependent variables related to article characteristics were also coded. These included article type (news, news analysis, editorial or letter to the editor), article subject (Barrett, Walker, both or other), article endorsement (Barrett, Walker or neither), article slant (left, left leaning, neutral, right leaning, right) and article tone (emotional or neutral). See Table 4 for an overview.

Coding One coder in addition to the author was involved in the project. The instrument and codebook are attached in Appendices A and B. Coding was completed during February 2013. Inter-coder reliability was conducted on 10% of the total articles coded. Each subframe was tested for reliability via Krippendorffs alpha. Twenty-two of 35 frames reached .7 or higher, with another eight reaching 1 (the coders agreed the frames were not present in the reliability sample). Frames that did not reach .7 included partisanship conflict, budget references, references to state culture, and public figure endorsements. Coder re-training yielded more consistency on endorsement partisan conflict references that rose to the level of a conflict frame (i.e., party references in

 political titles did not automatically count) and budget references (i.e., using the word budget explicitly). State culture references continued to be a problematic subframe, though the articles typically were coded as some form of social discord, and this broader category coding was ultimately more important.

Analysis set-up Data were organized according to two levels: the individual article level and the county/newspaper level. The county level data was analyzed via linear regression models and the article level data was analyzed via binary logistic regressions, both of which looked for relationships between a newspapers coverage characteristics and frames and the broader demographic, geographic and economic features of the broader county. At the individual article level, subframes were counted to get a total count for every frame category. Major frames (see Appendices C and D for clarification on major-versus-minor frame coding) counted as 2, and minor frames counted as 1. Subframes were also counted as present/not present. Any frame count of 1 or above was coded as 1 (present). Any frame count of 0 was coded as 0 (not present). At the county level, percentages were calculated for article type, subject, endorsement, slant and tone in order to control for the number of articles per paper. Then, subframes were added together for a total frame category count, which was divided by the total number of articles for an individual newspaper to get the average number of times a particular frame category appeared in that newspapers coverage. Finally, a measure of present/not present was also calculated, where any category frame count 1 or greater was coded as 1 and any category frame count of 0 was coded as 0.


Table 3: Overview of article frames

Conflict

Democrat/liberal versus Republican/conservative Urban versus rural/suburban Media versus the public/candidates Middle/working class versus elites/wealthy/corporations Teachers/public sector unions versus other professions/the community Other Federal/state/municipal budget Campaign fundraising or candidate spending Cost of recall to taxpayers Job numbers/economic development Other Civil unrest (egging, death threats, protests) Division in Wisconsin Political signs/sign vandalism Patriotism/upholding or protecting democracy State culture/"The Wisconsin Way" Other Political misconduct or criminal behavior Candidate qualifications or character traits Endorsement from prominent figure Debate coverage Election results National ramifications of recall Appropriateness of recall Poll numbers Voting logistics (poll hours, websites, etc.) Other Act 10/collective bargaining Education (not explicity Act 10) Environmental conservation Healthcare Hunting/gun rights Mining Women's rights Other

Economic

Social discord

Political Process

Political Policy


Table 4 Overview of article characteristics Type News News Analysis Editorial Letter to the Editor Tom Barrett/Tom Barrett campaign rep Scott Walker/Scott Walker campaign rep Roughly even Neither or other Tom Barrett Scott Walker Neutral or neither Left Left leaning Neutral Right leaning Right Dispassionate/Reasoned Emotional/Inflammatory

Subject

Endorsement

Slant

Tone

 CHAPTER 3 RESULTS The data were organized in two ways: by county level and by article level. In the county level analysis, the main dependent variables were the frame averages, or the category counts divided by number of articles to get average of a particular frame category in a particular newspaper. Percentages were also calculated for article type, subject, endorsement, slant and tone in order to control for the number of articles per paper. For the article-level analysis, the main dependent variables were the presence of a particular frame category (1 for present, 0 for not present), as well as the presence or absence of article characteristics, including type, subject, endorsement, slant and tone. This was measured by creating categorical dummy variables for each possible outcome for the various article characteristic variables. Results are organized as follows: Descriptive statistics County level results for frame averages and presences Article level results for frame averages and presences Article characteristics results Predictors for voting outcomes Hypotheses and research question outcomes

Of the 331 articles analyzed, Walker was the most frequent subject, by a wide margin (Figure 1). Again, subject was coded for whether a particular candidate had prominence or a noticeable majority of the coverage in a particular article. This could be determined by the headline, lead and first few paragraphs of the story. Even if both candidates were mentioned, if one was given noticeable more space and attention in the story, it was not coded as a both article. Of 331 articles, 36 (10.9%) were explicitly

 about Tom Barrett, while 145 (43.8%) were explicitly about Scott Walker. Sixty articles (18.1%) provided roughly equal coverage, while 90 articles (27.2%) were about a recall-related subject other than one or both of the candidates. The sample was fairly balanced between news and opinion content. Letters to the editor comprised the majority of the coded sample, which was a product of oversampling smallcirculation newspapers, which often had little news coverage of the recall and mostly confined discussion of the recall to the letters to the editor page. Of the 331 articles, 103 (31.1%) were straight news stories, 38 (11.5%) were coded as in-depth news analysis pieces, 48 (14.5%) were editorials and 142 (42.9%) were letters to the editor. Each article was also coded for whether it endorsed Walker, Barrett or neither. Most news and news analysis

 articles were coded as neutral (189%). Seventy-three articles (22.1%), specifically editorials and letters to the editor, clearly endorsed Barrett, while 69 articles (20.8%) clearly endorsed Walker. Additionally, article tone and partisan slant were also coded. Of the 331 articles, 149 (45%) were coded as having an emotional or inflammatory tone. The remainder, 182 articles (54.9%) were coded as neutral or non-emotional in tone. Slant was coded on a five-point scale, with 1 for explicitly Democratic or liberal, 2 for left-leaning, 3 for neutral or unclear, 4 for rightleaning and 5 for explicitly Republican or conservative. Very few articles were expressly partisan; most were partisan-leaning as indicated by language that defined the other side (union thugs, liberal crybabies, tea partiers) or expressed policy views that aligned with a particular side. For simplicity, 1s and 2s were combined into a left category, while 4s and 5s were combined into a right category. Of the 331 articles, 81 (24.7%) slanted left, 171 (52.1%) were neutral (most news and news analysis articles were coded here), and 76

 (23.2%) slanted right. See Table 5 for an overview.

Table 5 Frequencies and percent of sample for each article subject, endorsement, slant and type Subject Barrett Subject Walker Subject Both Subject Neither Endorse Barrett Endorse Walker Endorse Neither Slant Left Slant Neutral Slant Right Type News Type News Analysis Type Editorial Type Letter Frequency 36 145 60 90 73 69 189 81 171 76 103 38 48 142 Valid percent 10.9 43.8 18.1 27.2 22.1 20.8 57.1 24.7 52.1 23.2 31.1 11.5 14.5 42.9

Note: N=331

From here, relationships were explored between the prevalence of certain frames and various article characteristics. This was done at the county level, which meant frame averages (a percentage of a frame category out of total coverage) per county were evaluated. The averages controlled for the number of articles per county, since not all counties had five articles. Table 6 lays out the results of a correlation between news type and frame averages. News articles were a bit of a catchall, with most frame categories appearing. News analysis was more closely associated with political process frames, which included coverage related to the appropriateness of the recall election, voting turnout and other logistics-related coverage. Longer stories typically had the space for

 more details of this nature. Editorials were more associated with economic frames and political policy frames (the most common of which was explicit reference to Act 10). Letters to the editor were related to conflict frames and political process frames, which again was a category dominated by discussions of whether the recall was appropriate or not.
Table 6 Correlations between article type and averages of frames per county newspaper Political Process Average .544*** .25** -.078 -.387** Political Policy Average -.389** .153 .221* .151

Conflict Average News News analysis Editorial Letter to editor -.251** .137 .038 .209*

Economic Average -.39** -.005 .303** .185

Social Discord Average -.063 .05 .04 .061

Notes: *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72

Correlations between article subject (Barrett, Walker, both and neither) and frame categories averages were also explored (Table 7). No significant relationships between Barrett and frame categories were found. However, Walker was associated with economic and political policy (i.e., Act 10) frames. Coverage that was balanced between Walker and Barrett was associated with political process frames (such as the national significance of the race or campaign stops). Notably, coverage about recall topics other than the candidates was most closely associated with social discord frames, which

 included division in Wisconsin and civil unrest associated with the recall.
Table 7 Correlations between article subject and averages of frames per county newspaper Political policy average .051 .468*** -.091 -.316**

Conflict average Barrett Walker Both Neither .071 .262 -.2 -.082

Economic average -.085 .356** -.06 -.165

Social discord average .024 .004 -.156 .282**

Political process average .166 -.091 .33** -.084

Notes: *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72

Correlations between candidate endorsement and frame averages yielded some interesting insights (Table 8). Editorials and letters to the editor that endorsed Tom Barrett were associated with economic and political policy averages. Much economic coverage focused on jobs and the contentiousness over competing job loss/creation reports published during the recall election. Barrett in particular talked about those reports while on the campaign trail. Walker endorsements were also associated with economic frames, however, the endorsements were more strongly negatively related to political process storiesthe most major of which was the discussion of whether the recall was an appropriate response to Walkers controversial policies.


Table 8 Correlations between article endorsement and averages of frames per county newspaper Political process average -.133 -.328** Political policy average .551*** .037

Conflict average Barrett Walker .182 .198

Economic Social discord average average .314** .198* .217 .046

Notes: *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72

Table 9 Correlations between article slant and averages of frames per county newspaper Conflict average Left Left leaning Neutral Right leaning Right .306** .126 -.243** Economic Social discord average average .161 .318** -.316** .065 .144 .015*** Political process average -.053 -.184 .518*** Political policy average .354** .542*** -.345***

.201* .012

.216* -.032

.01 -.044

-.333** -.044

-.004** -.045

Notes: *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72

In terms of relationships between slant and article averages, one of the most interesting results was a correlation between conflict frames and explicitly left slant (Table 9). Additionally, left-slanted articles were associated with political policy frames,

 as were left-leaning articles. Surprisingly, right leaning articles were negatively correlated with political process and policy framesit was expected that conservative writers would discuss the recall appropriateness and collective bargaining bills frequently. An emotional tone was associated with conflict frames, but interestingly was more strongly associated with economic frames (Table 10). Emotional tone was also negatively related to political process frames. A neutral tone was negatively associated with economic frames and was most strongly associated with political process frames.

Table 10 Correlations between article tone and averages of frames per county newspaper Social discord average .139 -.061 Political process average -.288** .395** Political policy average .201* -.166

Conflict average Emotional tone Neutral tone .216* -.153

Economic average .284** -.249**

Notes: *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72

In addition to the correlations between frame averages and article characteristics, binary logistic regressions also were run to look for relationships between slant, subject, endorsement, type, slant and tone and the presence or absence of frame categories at the article level to cross check results at the county level. The article level data was used because of its larger N.

 The full results did not warrant an additional table, but the key significant relationships between each frame average and various article characteristics are listed here (coefficients have been standardized): For conflict frames, characteristics that significantly (p < .05) predicted the presence of conflict frames included article type 2 (news analysis) ( = .747, p =.033). For economic frames, article type 3 (editorials) predicted the presence of economic frames ( = .88, p =.003). Article subject 2 (Walker) also predicted the presence economic frames ( = .728, p =.003). For social discord frames, article endorsement 1 (Barrett) predicted the presence of these frames ( = .378, p = .095). For political process frames, an emotional tone negatively predicted political process frames ( = -.878, p = .006). For political policy frame, subject 2 (Walker) predicted political policy frames ( = .311, p = .001).

County-level frame averages Next, relationships between various groups of indicators and the presence and averages of frame categories were explored. Linear regressions were used at the county level. The independent variable indicators included pluralism, economics, voting patterns and case-specific variables. Pluralism included standardized variables for circulation, county population, percent of county workforce employed in agriculture, distance from county seat to MSA and percent white. Economic measures were split into two groups; traditional SES was measured by percent of county population with a high school diploma, percent of county population with a bachelors degree and median county income. Additionally, the percentage of

 county population in poverty and county unemployment were grouped together. These economic variables were not all combined due to multicollinearity issues. Voting patterns were measured by coding for Republican victories in the 2011 recall election, as well as every gubernatorial and presidential election back to 2000 (2010, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2000). Additionally, the number of partisan shifts per county was used as an independent variable in this group. Finally, case-specific variables were used, including distance to Madison and the percent of the county population employed as a government worker. Again, a multivariate regression was run to look for relationships between pluralism, poverty and unemployment, recall closeness, recall outcome, partisan shifts, percent of government workers and distance to Madison and frame category averages at the county level. See Table 11 for full results. Surprisingly, the pluralism index did not yield significant results. However, recall closeness and Madison distance were more significant. Specifically, recall closeness (the absolute value of difference in percentage of total votes between Barrett and Walker) predicted the average of economic frames and political policy frames. This means that communities with a larger difference in recall results (i.e., more decisive) were more likely to have newspaper coverage related to economics and particular political policies. The distance to Madison was negatively related to political process frames, meaning that as distance from the capital increased, the percentage of political process frames decreased. This finding was not expected, as the opposite was predicted.


Table 11 Multivariate regression results for county level frame averages Social Discord Average -.063 -.180 .116 -.161 .137 -.025 -.115 .082 .817 Political Process Average .090 .119 .131 -.064 -.088 .064 -.319** .198 2.256** Political Policy Average .021 .127 .209* .166 .099 -.164 .333** .215 2.504**

Conflict Average Pluralism Poverty & Unemployment Recall Closeness Recall Outcome Partisan Shifts Percent government worker Madison Distance R2 F .021 .176 -.001 .157 .119 -.216 .119 .142 1.014

Economic Average .054 .177 .306** .111 .174 -.099 .053 .142 1.513

Notes: Standardized betas. *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72

A correlation matrix also was run to look for overlap between predictors. The full matrix is not included here, but the voting outcome indicators were in fact related. To check if relationships were being suppressed in the multivariate regression results in Table 11, a series of simple linear regressions were run to look for relationships between each indicator and each frame average. While general trends remained the same, a few additional relationships did emerge in the simple linear regressions. The significant findings are listed here: For conflict averages, the recall outcome became significant ( = .225, p = .057), meaning Republican voting predicted more conflict coverage. Economic frames were essentially

 the same, with recall closeness again predicting economic frames. Social discord was negatively related to poverty and unemployment ( = -.200, p = .092), meaning that less economically prosperous communities had less social discord frames. Again, this is likely due to Menominee County. The simple linear regression results for pluralism predicting political process frames varied a bit from the results in Table 11, with pluralism emerging as a significant finding for political process frames ( = .253, p = .032). Recall outcome and partisan shifts also became significant predictors for political process frames in simple linear regressions ( = -.205, p = .083 and = -.206, p = .083, respectively), meaning that more stable Democratic-leaning counties negatively predicted political process frames. Madison distance remained negatively related. Finally, simple linear regression results found that political policy frames again were related to recall closeness but additionally were predicted by Republican recall outcomes ( = .243, p = .04) and Madison distance ( = .321, p = .006).

Article-level frame presences At the article level, binary logistic regressions were used to look for relationships between pluralism, poverty and unemployment, recall closeness, recall outcome, partisan shifts, percent of government workers and distance to Madison and the presence of frame categories. Binary logistic regressions were used for article-level analysis since the dependent variables were categorical. For example, conflict frames measured as present or not present rather than measured as an average of total coverage, as was done at the county level.

 Again, the pluralism index was not a strong predictor and instead, voting outcomes and distance to Madison were more significant. Conflict and social discord frames were more strongly predicted at the article level than at the county level, though political process and political policy variables were not as well explained. See Table 12 for the full results.

Table 12 Multivariate logistic regression results for article level frame presence Conflict Presence Pluralism Poverty & Unemployment Recall Closeness Recall Outcome Partisan Shifts Percent Gov Worker Madison Distance R2 Chi square -2 Log Likelihood .251 .347 .272 .837** .102* -.0398 -.192 .044 10.371 384.631a Economic Presence .182 .290 .054 -.074 .376** .336 .035 .03 7.314 427.322a Social Discord Presence .067 -.404 .872** -.256 .331** -.034 -.234 .052 13.169* 443.150a Political Process Presence .240 -.353 -.153 -.548 -.290 .460 -.108 .044 9.638 342.137a Political Policy Presence .026 -.0730 .359 -.072 .050 -.108 .766** .056 14.214* 444.622a

Notes. Standardized betas. *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, *** N=72

After this, simple logistic regressions between each independent and dependent variable were run to look for suppressed relationships in the multivariate logistic regression. The vast majority of the results were consistent with Table 12, so the full

 results are not represented in an additional table. Significant findings and findings that are different from Table 12 are listed here (coefficients have been standardized): Recall outcome emerged as a predictor for the presence of conflict frames ( = .702, p =.006). Predictors for the presence of economic frames were the same. Recall closeness emerged as a predictor for the presence of social discord frames ( = .208, p = .034). Though no predictors were significant in the multivariate regression, recall outcome and partisan shifts became negatively related to political process ( = -.925, p =.019 and = -.417, p = .043, respectively). Finally, political policy again was predicted by Madison distance and additionally was predicted by recall closeness ( = .467, p = .056). Again, Table 12 includes the full results for multivariate logistic regression, and the findings described in this paragraph were the results that differed significantly when simple logistic regressions were run between each independent and dependent variable.

Indicators for article characteristics Relationships between predictors and article characteristics were done at the county level (Tables 13-16). Linear regressions again were used. Relationships between pluralism and article characteristics were the most noteworthy findings here. Surprisingly, pluralism was not significantly related to article type 4 (letters). However, pluralism indicators did predict coverage subject. More pluralistic communities were more likely to have Barrett as the main subject or cover both subjects about evenly. Less pluralistic communities were more likely to have Walker as the main subject. Pluralism was also negatively related to an emotional tone. This is a tricky result considering the lack of a significant relationship between pluralism and letters to the editor. Essentially,

 in the sample under consideration here, more pluralistic communities were less likely to have an emotional tone in recall-related coverage. The most obvious explanation for this is that letters to the editor, which are much more likely to have an emotional tone, made up a large percentage of coverage in less pluralistic communities.

Table 13 Linear regression results for indicators related to article subject Barrett Pluralism Poverty & Unemployment Recall Closeness Recall Outcome Madison Distance Government Worker R2 .351** -.095 .028 .246 .197 -.067 .154 Walker -.262* -.062 .101 -.056 .086 -.084 .098 Both .419*** .42 .011 .065 -.108 -.046 .327 Neither -.0195 -.042 -.132 -.03 -.216 .051 .081

Notes: Standardized betas. *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72.

Table 14 Linear regression results for indicators related to article endorsement Barrett Pluralism Poverty & Unemployment Recall Closeness Recall Outcome Madison Distance Government Worker R2 -.014 -.163 .138 .12 .199 .204 .094 Walker -.156 -.134 .134 -.079 .14 -.039 .079 Neither .171 .32* -.179 .056 -.292** -.211 .193

Notes: Standardized betas. *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72.


Table 15 Linear regression results for indicators related to article slant Left Leaning -.017 -.013 .036 .019 .27** -.012 .13 Right Leaning -.105 -.043 .112 -.015 .059 -.079 .038

Left Pluralism Poverty & Unemployment Recall Closeness Recall Outcome Madison Distance Government Worker R2 .179 -.067 -.017 .06 -.017 .144 .048

Neutral .222 .174 -.08 .05 -.309** -.044 .177

Right .006 -.029 -.066 .129 .012 -.057 .032

Notes: Standardized betas. *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72.

Table 16 Linear regression results for indicators related to article type News Analysis .039 .354* -.079 -.016 -.006 -.222 .075 Letter to editor -.206 -.302* -.058 .03 .195 .18 .155

News Pluralism Poverty & Unemployment Recall Closeness Recall Outcome Madison Distance Government Worker R2 .369 .236 -.093 .021 -.169 -.121 .232

Editorial -.129 .149 .231* .085 -.245* -.123 .14

Notes: Standardized betas. *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72.

Additionally, a binary logistic regression was run between the indicators and the presence of emotional tone (not reported in the above tables). The one significant result was between pluralism and emotional article tone ( = -.315, p < .05, R2 = .245). This

 means more pluralistic communities were more likely to have a dispassionate, neutral tone.

Predictors for voting outcomes Since voting outcomes often emerged as significant for predicting frame averages and presences, it seemed prudent to further understand what factors were associated with particular county voting patterns (Table 17). Here, pluralism emerged as a strong predictor and was negatively related to Republican voting in the recall. This means that more pluralistic communities were less likely to vote Republican, which makes sense considering Wisconsins largest urban areas voted Democratic. Additionally, partisan shifts were related to Republican voting in the recall, meaning that more volatile counties (counties that switched back and forth between Republicans and Democrats in gubernatorial and presidential elections back to 2000) were more likely to vote Republican in the recall. Finally, the percent of government workers in a county negatively predicted Republican voting, which again is consistent with the Wisconsin recall case, where public sector workers were especially targeted by Walkers policies. A similar regression was performed on these predictors and recall closeness, but no significant relationships were found. Additionally, no significant relationships were found between recall outcome and recall closenessvoting Republican had no relationship to the closeness of that election. It seemed possible that pluralism could predict closeness, but this was not the case. The pluralism index was then broken apart, and the nine indicators were measured as predictors for Republican voting. Eight of the nine were significant, with circulation,

 county population, county seat population, population density and non-white percentage strongly negatively related to Republican voting. More clearly, this means that communities with smaller newspaper circulations, county populations and county seat populations, as well as a lower population density, were more likely to vote Republican. Communities with a higher percentage of non-white residents were more likely to vote Democratic. Notably, the only variable that did not reach significance as a predictor was income. Median county income did not significantly predict county recall election voting outcomes.

Table 17 Multivariate regression results for recall outcome Pluralism Poverty & unemployment Madison Distance Percent government worker Partisan shifts -.347** -.046 -.021 -.353** .277**

Notes: Standardized betas. *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72


Table 18 Simple regression results for pluralism indicators on voting outcome (Republican) R2 Circulation County population County seat population Persons per sq mile MSA closeness Income Bachelor's degree percentage Non-white percentage Non-agricultural employment percentage .128 .109 .147 .086 .06 .00 .076 .196 .042 Voting outcome -.357*** -.33*** -.385*** -.294** -.245* .016 -.276* -.443*** -.204*

Notes: Standardized betas. *p< .1, p < .05, ** p < .01, ***, N=72

 HYPOTHESES AND RESEARCH QUESTION OUTCOMES

These results indicate that community demographics dont easily translate to predicting coverage frames and characteristics. Instead, it appears that voting outcomes and geographic location were the strongest predictors overall. Since pluralism indicators are important factors in predicting the voting outcomes that do significantly predict coverage frames, H1 has received some support. H2 is similarly not directly supported in that the percent of government workers in a county doesnt predict coverage frames alone. Again, though, government workers predict voting outcomes. H3 is somewhat supported, though not in the way initially predicted. Pluralism indicators dont directly predict letters to the editor, but less pluralistic communities are more likely to have emotional coverage in generaland letters to the editor are the main source of this tone. Evidence also emerged for the research questions. Distance to Madison was a noteworthy predictor of coverage frames, as were voting outcomes. However, economic indicators were not especially strong predictors of coverage frames.

 CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION Ultimately, the picture emerging from this project is one of differing degrees of conflict tolerance in Wisconsin communities during the gubernatorial election. Place indeed became a political concept during the recall. The recall was a statewide event, and residents were inundated with political advertisements and ubiquitous news coverage of the election on television and in major state newspapers. In this situation, less pluralistic communities that would typically be conflict avoidant per structural pluralism predictions could not avoid the controversy. A core question for this project was whether Wisconsin communities that would be expected to be conflict avoidant would cover the event differently than communities where conflict is more frequent and better tolerated. In short, the answer is yes, but the process was nuanced, as the relationship between pluralistic indicators and coverage frames and characteristics is not necessarily direct.

Conflict avoidance and tolerance in Wisconsin communities Conflict avoidance was demonstrated to some extent by less pluralistic communities. Sixteen of the 17 counties with less than five recall-related articles were also among the 35 least-populated counties in Wisconsin. The four counties with the lowest populations (Menominee, Florence, Iron and Pepin) were all on the list of papers with less than five articles. Bayfield, which is the 10th least populated county, was an extreme exception with zero articles related to the recall. Bayfield was a special anomaly since the county voted Democratic in the recall election, when most of its peer counties in terms of pluralistic

 and economic indicators voted Republican. Bayfields county seat is one of the farthest from Madison and is almost 200 miles from the nearest metro area in Wisconsin (its located about 75 miles from Duluth, Minnesota). Some county seats appeared to rely on newspapers from other communities for recall information, and it appears this was the case for Bayfield. The Bayfield County Journal is owned and operated by the same staff that own and operate the Ashland Daily Press, which is based in a neighboring county. When asked why the paper provided no coverage of the recall, a senior staff writer said: There was no conscious editorial decision to not cover the recall. The County Journal is intended for local Bayfield County news. With regard to letters to the editor, we didn't receive any but got plenty for the [Ashland] Daily Press, and we had lots of coverage in that paper. The normal course of action [for the County Journal] is no state coverage unless the local angle is really strong. That's not its functionthat function would be the Daily Press's (R. Olivo, personal interview, June 5, 2013). It appears, then, that political conflict avoidance is the normal course of action for the Bayfield County Journal, and its handling of the recall was consistent with this longstanding practice. Residents of Bayfield County are always expected to obtain information about elections and voting outcomes from sources outside of their own county, and the recall was no exception. Such a resistance against even allowing an issue to be discussed in a communitys only local-specific media outlet is consistent with structural pluralism theories about a preference by less pluralistic communities to downplay potentially damaging conflict or avoid it entirely when possible. When political conflicts are categorized as not local and therefore not covered in the Bayfield County Journal, the conflict is then effectively externalized, and broader state

 conflicts like the recall are prevented from becoming sources of inner-community tension. However, conflict avoidance altogether was rare. More often, communities with a presumed low level of conflict tolerance in general addressed the recall but did so in a way that highlighted how unusual and uncomfortable such conflict was. To begin exploring this, it may seem like conflict frames would be a natural starting point. However, the entire recall event was inherently a conflict between candidates, political parties and various groups that affiliated with the parties during this process. Social discord frames better capture the sense of preoccupation with the social impact of the recall. Themes like division, civil unrest and sign vandalism indicate a focus not on the political issues or election results but instead a sense of concern over the contentiousness associated with the conflict itself. As one recall-fatigued woman told a reporter for the Clark County Press: Everybody is yelling at each other. Another resident compared the recall to the Civil War: Theres divisions in families about this. Its tough. Though social discord averages at the county level were not significantly predicted by pluralism indicators, voting variables did significantly predict the presence of social discord frames at the article level. Counties that shifted more frequently between Republican and Democrat candidates in major elections predicted more social discord frames. Additionally, counties with closer election outcomes in the recall also had more social discord frames. What this means is that during the recall, communities with less stable partisan identities were preoccupied not only with the candidates and issues at hand, but also with the general contentiousness surrounding the event.

 Another noteworthy social discord result was that a neutral coverage slant was related to a higher average of social discord frames. It was not unusual to see writers in letters to the editor explicitly say they had no partisan affiliation and then go on to lament the state of Wisconsins civic culture. Additionally, in communities with less coverage overall, it was more common to see only a couple of news articles that perfunctorily reported election results or poll location information. In these papers, any broader commentary or context about the recall was more likely to come via an editorial or letter to the editor. Though these types of coverage were not significantly correlated with social discord averages, this may simply be a product of the low N involved in this study. Similarly, a relationship exists between the average of social discord frames and articles not explicitly about either candidate. More simply, articles addressing the recall that were not about Walker, Barrett or both candidates were likely to be about social discord-related issues. Again, this highlights a preoccupation among Wisconsin residents with the impact of the recall on state culture. The Wisconsin way was a phrase used to associate the states political culture with bipartisanship, compromise and fundamentally progressive values. Integrity was another word used often as an ideal Wisconsin political value. When mentioned at all, Walkers approach to Act 10 was referenced as dropping the bomb or a product of back room deals. More frequently, Barrett was associated with the concept by way of his consistent messaging about Walkers divide and conquer strategiesa phrase the came from Walker himself during a videotaped conversation with a wealthy Wisconsin resident about his approach to unions. Barrett used the phrase repeatedly on the campaign trail, and it was the only tangible Barrett

 campaign message that appeared in newspapers throughout the state during the study time frame.

Republican voting as a mask for pluralism indicators A surprising angle to this project was the strength of past voting outcomes as predictors for coverageand which indicators predicted those voting outcomes. For example, a higher number of county partisan shifts since 2000 was related to the presence of conflict frames at the article level. Yet a Republican voting outcome in the recall was a stronger predictor of conflict frames, meaning counties that voted Republican were more likely to have conflict frames present in the county seat newspaper. A higher level of partisan shifts was also a strong predictor for Republican voting, meaning counties with a less stable pattern of partisanship were more likely to end up voting for Scott Walker. Its likely some of the predictive power of partisan shifts on conflict frames, then, is being obscured by the recall outcome variable. Pluralism indicators provide more examples of these complex relationships. Almost all of the pluralism indicators were negatively related to voting Republican, meaning more pluralistic communities in general voted for Barrett and less pluralistic communities voted for Walker. Similar to partisan shifts, then, its likely that some of predictive power of pluralism on frames and characteristics is again being masked. Additionally, it was surprising that the percentage of government workers did not more strongly predict coverage frames or characteristics on its own. However, the percentage was a strong (negative) predictor for Republican voting. The higher the percentage of

 government workers in a county, the more likely the county voted for Barrett.

Get off my lawn: Sign vandalism as a special case of social discord Nothing highlighted the tension in small-town communities more so than incidents of sign vandalism. Issues of free speech, civility and ideological debate were wrapped up in cases where residents either stole or defaced various political signs related to the recall. A noteworthy amount of political discourse was transferred to this mostly silent war of signs within neighborhoods. If a sign was harmed, the sign owner interpreted the act as a personal attack by a political enemy. Never did a letter writer assume mischievous teenagers defaced the sign; it was always a partisan issue. One incident in Townsend, Wisconsin, was particularly contentious, and the victim had his story published by way of letters to the editor in three county seat newspapers. The victims pro-Walker sign was spray bombed by a cowardly liberal, who was described as an ideologically blind union memberthough the victim had no actual knowledge of who committed the vandalism. Its worth noting that most sign vandalism coverage claimed that liberals and Barrett supporters were defacing pro-Walker signs. Signs also became a public signal of ones political leanings in general. One writer in Lincoln County was surprised to see a pro-Walker sign in his neighbors yard, as he interpreted such a sign as a symbol of screwed up morals and greed. On the flip side, a couple in Trempealeau County was taken aback after receiving an anonymous letter equating them with Hitler for putting up a pro-Walker sign in their yard. Not all sign-related coverage was about vandalism, though. The Sawyer County Record covered a regularbut peacefulsign standoff between pro-Walker and pro-

 Barrett groups in the same parking lot each weekend. The Antigo Daily Journal in Langlade County illustrated how even public officials had taken note of sign contentiousness by publishing a reminder from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to citizens living near highways about regulations related to erecting banners within a certain distance from the road. Notably, the article did not explicitly reference Walker or Barrett, but the timing and general language of the article made its intent fairly obvious. Similar articles about the departments reminder were published in Clark, Rusk and Door Counties. In Waukesha County, one letter writer described yard signs as a peaceful and preferable form of political expression to the antics of the self-indulgent bunch who trampled on us when they trashed the state Capitol during the 2011 protests. However, the appropriateness of self-expression via political signs came into question when Green Bay assistant district attorney Joan Korb was criticized for posting a Recall Walker sign in her own front yard. Some letter writers argued that as a public official she should have stayed neutral, while Korb vehemently disagreed in a letter published in multiple papers across the Fox Valley. Political signs became hyper-local, physical expressions of political tensions in communities that were not well equipped for such conflict. More pluralistic communities did not cover sign incidents as often; these stories were mostly confined to the letters to the editor sections of newspapers in less pluralistic communities. (Ashland, Barron, Buffalo, Clark and Lincoln Counties are a few examples of counties with sign vandalismrelated coverage.) A couple of stories highlighted egging incidents or verbal confrontations among residents, but sign vandalism by far was the most common

 expression of civic unrest.

Dane County teachers and Iron County miners: Putting issues into local contexts Distance to Madison served essentially as a case-specific pluralism measure in this study. Counties farther from Madison had a higher average of political policy frames. The strength of the relationship between policy frames and proximity to Madison indicates an attempt by communities across the state to characterize the recall in ways that were relevant or made sense within that particular communitys context. It was expected that education would be the main policy issue in this case since Act 10 was the legislation that sparked the recall. While Act 10 was certainly one of those policies for places like Dane County, more commonly, communities tried to connect the recall to more local-specific issues. Some communities treated the recall as a typical election, where politicians should be evaluated based on a pre-existing set of staple political issues. For example, education was not a frame that appeared in Douglas County, but whether each candidate supported a controversial mining initiative most certainly was. Conservation was another policy frame that appeared in more rural counties. Hunting and outdoors tourism are popular activities in Wisconsin, so gun rights and environmental issues are typical perennial issues in more rural communities. Additionally, referencing political policies also seemed to be an attempt by letter writers to demonstrate a sense of authority or political expertise; sometimes authors would include a laundry list of political policies they perceived as relevant to the recall, indicating an attempt to present themselves as well-informed citizens.

 Though distance to Milwaukee was not used a variable in this study, future work should include a consideration of proximity to Wisconsins largest city. The urbanversus-suburban or urban-versus-rural conflict frame was developed with Madison in mind since that city was the site of the 2011 protests. With 22% of its workforce employed by some level of government, Dane County is second only to Menominee County for highest level of public sector employment. (The tribal and federal government employs almost 40% of Menominee County workers, while state government agencies employ the majority of public-sector workers in Dane County.) This made Act 10 an especially salient and contentious issue for Dane County, which was also the county where the gubernatorial recall petition began. Therefore, proximity to Madison was expected to be the most common urban conflict during the recall election. However, Tom Barrett was the mayor of Milwaukee at the time of the recall election. This inherently made conditions in Milwaukee a salient political issue. Milwaukee was portrayed as a crime-ridden city plagued by unemployment and corruption. Most often, Barrett was connected to Milwaukees issues, though Walker had been the Milwaukee County executive immediately before taking over as governor in 2010. Milwaukee, not Madison, became the city against which suburban and rural residents contrasted themselves against. This othering of Milwaukee occurred in less populated counties like Barron, Door or Grant, and also in counties with medium-sized metropolitan counties, like Brown and Eau Claire. Much less discussion of Madison occurred than was expected. Its possible this was a symptom of the extensive Madisonrelated coverage that occurred in 2011; perhaps Wisconsin residents were tired of rehashing the protest-era theme of how foreign planet Madison is in comparison to the

 rest of the state. The simplest explanation, though, is that the emphasis on Milwaukee was a product of Barretts direct connection to that city.

Class and conflict frames Class-related conflicts were a noteworthy component of the conflict frames present in recall coverage. Articles with an emotional tone were more likely to include conflict frames. Articles slanted both left and right were associated with conflict frames. Notably, the strongest predictors for the presence of conflict frames were a Republican voting outcome in the recall and a higher number of partisan shifts since 2000. Essentially, counties with less-fixed partisan identities that ultimately sided with Walker served as the hotbeds for conflict frames during the recall. In some counties, it became clear that recall-related discourse was mostly about competing perceptions related to Walkers character and performance. Many of the specific conflict frames used throughout the recall election were inter-related. For example, stories often blended the conflict between the governor and government workers with broader partisan or political ideology conflicts. Writers sympathetic to government workers often equated them with the middle class, and themes of oppression or manipulation by elites regularly emerged. Class conflict also emerged by way of more geographic-based conflicts: outsider donors composed a major class of characters in the recall coverage. Again, media estimates for the total amount of money spent on the recall election range from $60 to $80 million. Most of this money came from political donors and PACs headquartered outside of Wisconsin. These donors were perceived as shadowy outsiders

 who were exerting influenceand at times undue influenceover the Wisconsin election. The wealthy benefactors were typically unnamed, but their beneficiary was typically Scott Walker. Union money was sometimes associated with Barrett, but not nearly to the degree that the wealthy were associated with Walker. One donor was named regularly: Diane Hendricks, a Beloit-based CEO who donated $510,000 to Walker. A documentary filmmaker captured Walker and Hendricks discussing his strategy for dealing with unions, during which Walker used the phrase divide and conquer. The clip was released publicly and, as already discussed, became a major political talking point for Barrett. In addition to its association with the broader political tensions, the phrase became associated with class conflict frames about threats to the middle class. Outsiders as a concept wasnt limited to stories about people and organizations located outside of Wisconsin. Letter and editorial writers who were unsympathetic to government workers often used terms like union thug. This mafia/criminal-style language framed government workers as the deviant enemy. Union thugs were blamed for trashing the Capitol building during the 2011 protests and for forcing Wisconsinites to hold a recall election because they didnt get their way with Act 10. It was expected that more of this language would directly associate union thugs with Madison, but this really wasnt the case. Union thugs could live in ones own community. Some writers attempted to re-appropriate the union thug term. One writer in the Racine Journal Times asked readers: Are you a union thug like me? Youre decent, hard-working. You played by the rules. Another letter writer from Townsend, Wisconsin, had a letter published in multiple county newspapers that attempted to explain

 how Republicans had constructed the union thug imagery and such imagery was duping people into supporting Walker. Essentially, expressions of the outsider/insider tension varied in letters to the editor and editorials and often did so along partisan lines. In right-leaning articles, the outsiders were the union thugs or agitators who forced a recall against the will of real Wisconsinites. If class identity came up at all in these letters, it was expressed by way of resentment toward entitled government workers and the idea that some were getting more than their fair share. In left-leaning articles, middle-class identity was less fractured. Outsiders was used more conceptually to mean the wealthy, who were coopting the election by buying Walker and manipulating Wisconsin residents into thinking government workers were the enemy.

Show me the money: Economic development framing Economic framing was also a robust component of recall coverage. Voting for Walker strongly predicted a higher average of economic frames, and a correlation existed between articles with Walker as the main subject and economic framing, which wasnt surprising since much of Walkers campaign messaging was related to job creation and economic development efforts throughout the state. Conflicting job number reports were released during the election, and Walker was often associated with the debate about whether Wisconsin had gained or lost jobs over the past year. However, articles that featured Barrett as the main subject were also likely to include economic frames. Additionally, both left and right leaning articles were associated with economic frames, meaning these frames were present in messaging from

 partisans on both sides. This can be interpreted in a variety of ways. The debate over job numbers appeared to become part of both candidates messaging, with Walker supporting the positive report and Barrett more often citing the more negative report. Interestingly, economic frames were more strongly correlated with editorials and in fact were negatively correlated with news articles. This means opinion writers rather than news writers were more likely to link the recall to economic issues in general. This interpretation is supported by the strong correlation between emotional tone and economic frames. Two significant findings related to economic frames were in conflict. Partisan shifts (a measure of volatility) strongly predicted the presence of economic frames, but so did the recall closeness measure (a measure of public opinion consensus), meaning counties that were more decisive in their outcomes were also more likely to have economic frames. The takeaway from these findings is that economic frames were used broadly in the Wisconsin recall. Without looking at relationships between individual economic frames and various indicators, it is difficult to know exactly what messages were used in various contexts. What does appear to be well supported is that letter and editorial writers from both political parties were using budget-related and jobs-based information to make their competing cases. Little consensus existed over whether the state was experiencing a budget deficit or surplus. Additionally, wildly different estimates for how much the recall election would cost taxpayers were published in various communities. For example, one Douglas County letter writer claimed the election would cost $20 million. Another letter writer in the Door County Advocate claimed the recall would cost his county alone more than

 $50,000. The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board eventually priced the recall at $2.1 million for taxpayers, so its likely readers were confusing the amount of money spent by third-party donors on the race (which again ranged from $60 to $80 million) with the amount paid by Wisconsin residents.

Project Limitations The most significant limitation of this study was the small sample size. The project was constrained by the number of counties in Wisconsin, which made finding significance in results more difficult. Even analysis at the article level was constrained to an extent; in order to ensure equal representation among newspapers, no more than five articles were used from each paper. The coded sample of 331 articles was only a small section of the more than 1,700 articles collected. Extending this, those 1,700 articles comprised only a portion of news coverage related to the Wisconsin recall overall. The ideal collection would include coverage starting from the petition process that eventually triggered the recall, which would have included coverage from most of 2012. However, the labor involved in that kind of collection was beyond the scope of this particular project. The study also does not include television or online coverage, both of which would have richly informed this analysis. However, confining the sample to local newspapers also preserved the narratives and frames used within particular communities, so this limitation is also a benefit of this project. One analytical limitation came from combining subframes into frame categories. This decision was made to maximize the possibility of seeing significant results in the

 face of a low N, but the combined categories make interpretation more difficult as its hard to know which particular frames are related to various indicators. However, again, the low number of communities evaluated here would have made finding statistical significance between individual frames and indicators unlikely if only subframes were analyzed.

Conclusion In a scene reminiscent of LeMasters, the author watched the recall election returns from a Dane County bar on the night of June 5. Those in our party who had Wisconsin relatives living outside the state capital were less surprised by Walkers victory than those who had moved to Madison from outside the state and therefore had little contact with non-Madison Wisconsinites. It became clear during the post-election chatter that those with broader Wisconsin connections were hearing very different interpretations of the recall throughout the election process than were those limited to the Madison media environment. Many of the themes highlighted in this project came up in conversation; our Wisconsin-based grandparents, parents or high-school friends had commented for months that they disliked division, resented government worker compensation or disapproved of the concept of a recall election itself. However, our outsider companions often lacked knowledge of the existence of these messages and the impact of those messages on public opinion in communities outside of the capital. Their genuine surprise at the recall election result cuts to the core of why projects like the one outlined here are valuable. Its important for us to pay attention to the political discourse happening in communities outside of our own, especially when the

 political decisions made in those communities impact ours as well. Communication scholars and professionals need a more robust understanding of the contexts in which political messages are received and interpreted. Who we are politically is, in part, an outcome of where we live, and these locational filters can affect how we interpret what we hear and see during political events. In terms of the Wisconsin recall, it appears that state residents were in general less preoccupied with continuing the debate over collective bargainingwhich had consumed the media during the 2011 protestsand instead were more interested in deliberating the social impact of the recall itself. Consistent with structural pluralism predictions, communities that normally would have avoided the conflict altogether if they could have found themselves grappling with an unusual level of contentiousness. Though this study doesnt allow for causal statements, it seems likely that the acrimony played a significant part in the ultimate recall outcome. While some residents blamed Walker for the social division happening in Wisconsin, many blamed the recall process itself. Those wanting to understand why Walker ultimately won the recall must not overlook this preoccupation with the way things should be done. Some communities believed the recall election was necessary, while others believed the process was not the appropriate way to deal with frustration over Act 10. What an individual believed was the appropriate way was shaped in no small part by their local community context, meaning that during the recall, Wisconsin places indeed became very political spaces.

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 Appendix A: Wisconsin county and county seat map

Map via Geology.com. http://geology.com/county-map/wisconsin.shtml. Retrieved March 25, 2013.

 Appendix B: 2012 Recall election results by county

Map via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/152346265.html. Retrieved March 25, 2013.

 Appendix C: Coding Instrument VARIABLES A. CODER NAME 1. Sandy 2. Dave 3. Courtney B. FILE NAME (e.g., Barron_1) C. ARTICLE MONTH (5 or 6) D. ARTICLE DAY (1 to 31) E. ARTICLE TYPE 1. News (more episodicspecific event, report, poll result, election result, speech, advertisement release. Timely fashion report) 2. News analysis (more thematic, analyticaloverview piece not tied to specific news event; discusses issues or general policy stances. Like what you see in a Sunday paper) 3. Editorial/Column (marked as opinion; author makes statements in own voice, often have a strong argument) 4. Letter to the Editor F. ARTICLE SUBJECT (Who receives the noticeable majority of coverage in article? See codebook for details.) 1. Tom Barrett/Tom Barrett campaign representative 2. Scott Walker/Scott Walker campaign representative 3. Roughly even 4. Neither or other G. ARTICLE ENDORSEMENT (If the article is a letter to the editor or editorial, who does the article advocate voting for or supporting in general?) 1. Tom Barrett 2. Scott Walker 3. Neutral or N/A (news/news analysis) H. ARTICLE SLANT (See codebook for more details.) 1. Left 2. Left Leaning 3. Neutral (overall objective, no obvious favoritism) 4. Right Leaning 5. Right I. ARTICLE TONE (See codebook for more details.) 0. Dispassionate/Reasoned

 1. Passionate/Emotional/Inflammatory (name-calling, use of loaded terminology such as union thugs or right-wing zealots) EXTERNAL SOURCES CITED (article cites information from a news organization) * 1 = Yes * 0 = No J. K. L. M. N. O. P. Q. Associated Press Gannett Newspapers Lee Newspapers Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Wisconsin State Journal Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism Wisconsin Newspaper Association Other:

NEWS FRAMES Below is a series of possible content frames present in the article. Please identify any major or minor frames that are present. A major frame would be an overarching frame; the story is about X. A minor frame would be a subframe, or a theme within the story. It could be a noticeable strand of the story, but it doesnt overshadow the major frame (or the story may not have a major frame). A minor frame could also be represented as a phrase within the story. If a topic is mentioned in the headline, lead or the first three sentences of the story, its most likely a 2. If its a topic mentioned anywhere else, its most likely a 1. See codebook for more. * 2 = Major Frame * 1 = Minor Frame * 0 = No Circle any non-bolded frames that are present and mark 2 or 1. R. S. T. U. V. Conflict Frames Democrat /liberal versus Republican/conservative (See codebook.) Urban interests versus rural/suburban interests Media versus the public/candidates (See codebook.) Middle/working class versus elites/wealthy/corporations (Any type of class conflict) W. Teachers/public unions/public sector workers versus other professions/governor/community (See codebook.) X. Other (Please specify): Y. Z. AA. Economic Frames Federal/state/municipal Budget Campaign fundraising/candidate or third party or PAC spending

 BB. Cost of recall (Cost to taxpayersdoes NOT include third party or candidate spending.) CC. Job numbers/economic development/workforce development (Anything related to bringing jobs/businesses to the state or debating number of jobs created or lost in state.) DD. Other (Please specify): EE. Social Discord Frames FF. Civil unrest (i.e., egging, death threats or protests.) GG. Division in Wisconsin (See codebook.) HH. Political signs/Sign vandalism II. Patriotism/upholding or protecting democracy (e.g., our rights) JJ. Reference to state culture: The Wisconsin way/Integrity/Wisconsin Values KK. Other (Please specify): LL. Political Process Frames MM. Allegations of political misconduct or criminal behavior in office NN. Candidate qualifications, character or traits (e.g. compassion, intelligence, honesty, or lack thereof) OO. Endorsement from paper or support from prominent figure or celebrity (See codebook.) PP. Debate coverage QQ. Election results RR. Historic nature of election/national significance/impact of election on the future SS. Commentary about whether the recall process is appropriate or not appropriate TT. Poll number updates UU. Voting logistics (See codebook.) VV. Other (Please specify): WW. Political Policy Frames XX. Abortion/Womens rights YY. Act 10/collective bargaining bill/budget reform bill clearly alluding to unions ZZ. Education (See codebook.) AAA. Environmental conservation (not specific mining) BBB. Healthcare/BadgerCare/Medicare/Medicaid CCC. Hunting/gun rights DDD. Mining EEE. Other (Please specify):

 Appendix D: Codebook General notes: Please disregard any reader comments below articles. If the article is primarily about Mahlon Mitchell, Rebecca Kleefisch, Scott Fitzgerald or other senate recall races, please dont code. Odd spacing between words or paragraphs may have occurred while converting articles to word docs. Please overlook. When determining major or minor frames, look especially carefully at the headline and the first three sentences of the story. Any frames present should likely be coded as 2 (major frames). And subsequent frames present in the story should likely be coded as 1. If a story has a very strong theme that emerges consistently throughout the article after those first 3 sentences, code as major, but try to limit each story to around 2 major frames. The first three sentences will be a good guide for new story frames, and if a letter to the editor or editorial has no clear major frame in the first sentences, its likely a rant that has no major frame anyway. Notes on selected variable items: A. ARTICLE SUBJECT 5. Tom Barrett/Tom Barrett campaign representative 6. Scott Walker/Scott Walker campaign representative 7. Roughly even 8. Neither or other When coding, consider who is receiving the noticeable majority of coverage in the article. Below is an example. Headline: Barrett, Kohl rally Oshkosh Democrats in final pre-election push First graf: U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl joined Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on Sunday for a campaign stop at downtown Oshkoshs New Moon Cafe, in a final drive to energize voters before Tuesdays recall election in which Barrett will challenge Gov. Scott Walker. The subject here would be Tom Barrett. Though Scott Walker is mentioned, Tom Barrett has prominence, and the article goes on to mostly cover Barretts appearance at an event, with only a few paragraphs at the end about a comparable Walker event. If in fact headline read more like, Candidates make final pre-election push and the lead read Both candidates will be on hand at a breakfast event at a local farm and went on to discuss both Barrett and Walkers campaign stops, then it should be coded as roughly even. H. ARTICLE SLANT

 1. Left 2. Left Leaning 3. Neutral (overall objective, no obvious favoritism) 4. Right Leaning 5. Right In determining slant, consider whether the article paints a better picture of Barrett or Walker for the average, undecided voter. If the author explicitly affiliates with a particular party or ideology (Democrat, Republican or liberal, conservative), then code as Left or Right. An explicit reference may include phrases like, As a long-term Democrat voter or This June, I am voting Republican. An endorsement of a particular candidate does not automatically mean the article is slanted Left or Right. The author must make their affiliation clear. To determine whether an article is left leaning or right leaning, consider whether the article appears to agree with a particular side without explicitly stating the authors personal affiliation. An example may be: The recall elections we are having next week is a waste of taxpayer's money and should be paid by the ones who started this. This indicates an agreement with the Republican stance on the recall election, but does not say the author is definitely a Republican. I. ARTICLE TONE 0. Dispassionate/Reasoned 1. Passionate/Emotional/Inflammatory (name-calling, use of loaded terminology such as union thugs or right-wing zealots) This is a measure of the authors emotionality or intensity. Passionate quotes do not automatically mean the article has a passionate tone. Most likely, a passionate tone will be reserved for letters to the editor or editorials that are hostile, inflammatory, name-call or display other emotion-based qualities. Terms like crybabies, union thugs, zealots, or theyd recall Santa Claus are example indicators of emotional tone. Phrases of similar quality to the following should be coded as passionate: Protesters blocking streets and fighting with police; it's like we let some animals loose with disregard for law and order. Notes on selected news frame items: S. Democrat /liberal versus Republican/conservative For this topic to be a story frame, it should clearly reference the Democratic and/or Republican parties, or the liberal and/or conservative ideologies. One of these terms should be present in a more meaningful way than simply as part of a title (such as Republican Gov. Scott Walker). An example of this frame would be: Democrats counter that the laws primary purpose

 was to eviscerate the unions, which tend to back their party. There is a clear conflict or tension being alluded to in this text. Though the text doesnt reference the Republicans by name, a reasonable reader would be able to infer this conflict. U. Media versus the public/candidates Code for this frame if the article includes criticism of the media. Is the media being accused of bias, negative treatment toward a candidate or negative effects on the public, such as an inundation of coverage? If advertisements are not explicitly tied to campaign fundraising or candidate spending language, then code criticisms related to the volume of advertisements here. W. Teachers/public unions/public sector workers versus other professions/governor/community Look for any reference to teachers, labor, unions, public sector workers, government workers, or similar terms. Code this frame as present if any of these terms are discussed as participating in the political process or are portrayed as villains or objects or scorn. Examples may look like: I have seen some articles on how great the unions are and what they have done for some people. First of all, the unions have not made one job. FF. Civil unrest (i.e. egging, death threats or protests.) This is a catch-all category for social unrest that is not explicitly about division in Wisconsin or sign vandalism. Other cases of election-related crime, protesting, candidate heckling or citizen/citizen confrontation should be coded here. GG. Division in Wisconsin. Use this frame for any references to division, divisiveness, divided, or other variations on the word divide. Also use this frame to for terms related to calls to restore unity in Wisconsin. For example: Kohl called Barrett a unifier and said his ability to find common ground among competing interests is what Wisconsin needs. In this text, the word unifier implies that a division exists and needs to be repaired. JJ. Reference to state culture: The Wisconsin way/Integrity/Wisconsin Values Use this frame for articles that include text related to the upsetting of cultural norms in Wisconsin or negative changes in the states social environment, as well as calls for a restoration of positive traits. An example of this kind of text would be: We can have a healthy disagreement, but at the end of the day, we have to do things right and get things done, Barrett said. My approach has never been, Its my way or the highway. Thats the approach that hes taken. This text is implying that the current way of doing things is not the right way, or the Wisconsin way. Look for comments that indicate a sense of nostalgia for integrity in politics or bi-partisanship behaviors.

 OO. Endorsement from paper or support from prominent figure or celebrity For example: Bill Clinton is in Wisconsin campaigning this week for Tom Barrett. If fundraising is mentioned in conjunction with a prominent figures support, also code for campaign fundraising. UU. Voting logistics Examples of this may include references to ballots, voting machines, polling place hours, dates, IDs, rules for voting, websites to visit or poll volunteer information. ZZ. Education If the article reference education reforms or interests without explicitly referencing Act 10, code this. Both education and Act 10 frames can be present if linked together but serve as separate concepts, such as: Our schools are in dire need of additional support. Policies like Act 10 are only a start, and broader change is needed. If technical schools or other job training programs are discussed via the term education, code as both education and jobs/economic development.

 Appendix E. Inventory of sample newspapers and number of articles collected County Adams Ashland Barron Bayfield Brown Buffalo Burnett Calumet Chippewa Clark Columbia Crawford Dane Dodge Door Douglas Dunn Eau Claire Florence Fond du Lac Forest Grant Green Green Lake Iowa Iron Jackson Jefferson Juneau Kenosha Kewaunee La Crosse Lafayette Langlade Lincoln County seat Friendship Ashland Barron Washburn Green Bay Alma Siren Chilton Chippewa Falls Neillsville Portage Prairie du Chien Madison Juneau Sturgeon Bay Superior Menomonie Eau Claire Florence Fond du Lac Crandon Lancaster Monroe Green Lake Dodgeville Hurley Black River Falls Jefferson Mauston Kenosha Kewaunee La Crosse Darlington Antigo Merrill Newspaper of record Friendship Times Reporter Ashland Daily Press Barron News-Shield County Journal Green Bay Press-Gazette Buffalo County Journal Inter-County Leader Times-Journal Chippewa Herald The Clark County Press Daily Register Courier Press Wisconsin State Journal Dodge County Independent Door County Advocate Daily Telegram Dunn County News Leader Telegram Florence Mining News Fond du Lac Reporter The Forest Republican Herald Independent Monroe Times Green Lake Reporter The Dodgeville Chronicle Iron County Miner Jackson County Chronicle Daily Union Juneau County Star-Times Kenosha News County Star-News La Crosse Tribune Republican Journal Antigo Daily Journal Merrill Foto News Articles collected 2 8 17 0 31 2 19 2 50 8 15 10 63 5 16 47 18 12 5 30 8 4 16 6 11 3 11 9 14 97 3 41 4 35 8

 Manitowoc Marathon Marinette Marquette Menominee Milwaukee Monroe Oconto Oneida Outagamie Ozaukee Pepin Pierce Polk Portage Price Racine Richland Rock Rusk Saint Croix Sauk Sawyer Shawano Sheboygan Taylor Trempealeau Vernon Vilas Walworth Washburn Washington Waukesha Waupaca Waushara Winnebago Wood Total Manitowoc Wausau Marinette Montello Keshena Milwaukee Sparta Oconto Rhinelander Appleton Port Washington Durand Ellsworth Balsam Lake Stevens Point Phillips Racine Richland Center Janesville Ladysmith Hudson Baraboo Hayward Shawano Sheboygan Medford Whitehall Viroqua Eagle River Elkhorn Shell Lake West Bend Waukesha Waupaca Wautoma Oshkosh Wisconsin Rapids Herald Times Reporter Wausau Daily Herald Eagle Herald Marquette County Tribune Menominee Nation News Journal Sentinel Monroe County Democrat Oconto County Reporter Northwoods River News Appleton Post Crescent Ozaukee Press Durand Courier-Wedge Pierce County Herald County Ledger Press Stevens Point Journal Phillips Bee Journal Times The Richland Observer Janesville Gazette Ladysmith News Hudson Star Observer Baraboo News Republic Sawyer County Record Shawano Leader Sheboygan Press Star News Trempealeau County Times Vernon Broadcaster Vilas County News-Review Elkhorn Independent Washburn County Register Daily News Waukesha Freeman Waupaca County Post Waushara Argus The Northwestern Daily Tribune 60 14 37 3 3 308 10 5 27 86 12 4 16 13 7 7 93 7 17 21 25 50 9 5 6 12 2 5 18 20 12 40 108 13 6 9 4 1,724

 Appendix F. Inventory of coded articles by type County Adams Ashland Barron Bayfield Brown Buffalo Burnett Calumet Chippewa Clark Columbia Crawford Dane Dodge Door Douglas Dunn Eau Claire Florence Fond du Lac Forest Grant Green Green Lake Iowa Iron Jackson Jefferson Juneau Kenosha Kewaunee La Crosse Lafayette Langlade Lincoln News 0 0 0 0 4 1 3 1 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 0 0 3 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 2 0 4 0 2 2 2 1 1 0 Analyses 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 Editorials 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 Letters 2 4 3 0 0 1 2 1 0 3 2 4 1 4 3 4 3 0 3 3 3 0 3 3 4 0 4 0 2 2 0 1 4 2 5

 Manitowoc Marathon Marinette Marquette Menominee Milwaukee Monroe Oconto Oneida Outagamie Ozaukee Pepin Pierce Polk Portage Price Racine Richland Rock Rusk Saint Croix Sauk Sawyer Shawano Sheboygan Taylor Trempealeau Vernon Vilas Walworth Washburn Washington Waukesha Waupaca Waushara Winnebago Wood Total 0 2 1 2 2 5 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 0 4 0 1 0 2 4 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 3 0 1 3 3 103 1 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 2 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 38 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 2 1 3 0 3 0 5 0 1 0 47 2 0 1 1 0 0 4 3 3 0 4 0 4 4 0 4 3 0 0 5 3 4 2 0 0 3 1 0 4 2 3 1 2 0 4 0 0 143