Piazza, P. (2014). The Media Got it Wrong! A Critical Discourse
Analysis of Changes to the Educational Policy Making Arena. Education Policy
Analysis Archives, 22 (36). http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v22n36.2014

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Abstract: The context for education policy making has changed dramatically
in recent years. Policy-making at the state-level has become characterized
by near-unprecedented enactment of neo-liberal education policies, increased
influence of so-called Education Reform Advocacy Organizations (ERAOs) and
increased challenges to unions’ political influence. In this article, I
explore the news media’s characterization of power and political influence
in this new policy making arena. I offer case study analysis of a
Massachusetts law, passed in the summer of 2012 with support from a
non-profit advocacy group called Stand for Children, that limits
seniority-based tenure for public school teachers. I use Critical Discourse
Analysis to explore how themes, or discourses, common to this new context of
policy making played out in the media coverage of the law, and I identify
and characterize differences between media coverage of the law and the
historical account as told in stakeholder interviews with major players
involved in policy debate and development. Ultimately, I suggest that
differences between media and interview data can tell us a lot about power
and political influence in a time of dramatic policy change.
Keywords: educational policy; media research; teacher unions; neoliberalism