Medical Cannabis: A Framing Analysis of Israeli Newspaper Coverage

Medical cannabis is a topic of increasing debate. To investigate this issue, we conducted a content analysis of Israeli news coverage of medical cannabis from 2007 to 2013. A deductive framing analysis examined three elite issue framesmedical, policy, and law enforcement. Additionally, inductive analysis revealed a a fourth, nonelite patients' frame. Each frame was associated with a distinct pattern of textual elements, including portrayal of patients, references to cannabis, opinion about medical cannabis, and salience of scientific research. The most common and most stable frame was the policy frame. Implications for framing theory are discussed.