Center for Media and Public Affairs

The Center for Media and Public Affairs is a research center at George Mason University that studies the news and entertainment media. It was founded in 1985 by S. Robert Lichter, professor of communications at George Mason, and the late Linda Lichter, a sociologist. Research by the center often uses content analysis to analyze news coverage within various fields of academic inquiry. This includes a system of coding that allows for the uniform deconstruction of news stories on a statement-by-statement level for the tabulation of comparative and aggregate variables.

During the U.S. presidential election in 2008, the center used a quantitative method for analyzing negative and positive statements and the length of airtime given to Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain in news coverage of ...