Leveraging the power of ChatGPT to analyze policy framing: policy agendas and issue positions of U.S. governors during the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

Following Entman’s observation that policy frames define social problems, diagnose causes and suggest remedies, we examined the strategies that 12 U.S. governors (from states matched according to population size and density, demographic composition, per capita incomes, geographic proximity, and COVID-19 incidence) used to frame COVID-19 policy agendas. After scraping the governors’ statements about COVID-19 from press releases issued from January 2020 to May 2023 (N = 14,629), we leveraged ChatGPT (GPT) to identify and assess the intensity of public health, economic stability, and civic vitality frames. Subsequent analysis explored differences in the framing strategies according to the governors’ political party and gender. In the process, this study underscores the importance of AI prompt engineering to realize GPT’s transformative potential to facilitate communication research by efficiently identifying and assessing the content of policy frames.