Superficial Friends: A Content Analysis of Nonprofit and Philanthropy Coverage in Nine Major Newspapers

Abstract

Hundreds of empirical studies indicate that the media can tell us not only what to think about but what to think. It is therefore likely that media coverage of nonprofits may have profound effects on the public's perception of the voluntary sector. Unfortunately, there is little empirical research about media coverage of nonprofits and almost none that is framed by communication theories. This article uses two such theories, agenda setting and media framing, to explore how nonprofits are portrayed in the media. A content analysis of 1,034 randomly sampled newspaper stories reveals that although nonprofit coverage is generally quite favorable, it is often episodic and not thematically framed. In addition, the results indicate that on the comparatively rare occasions when newspaper stories focus on the nonprofit sector as a whole instead of individual nonprofit organizations, the proportion of stories favorable toward nonprofits declines.

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