Media ownership and cannabis in Humboldt County news media

Framing allows us to attain a standpoint with respect to a certain issue (Goffman 1974). In the United States, cannabis – marijuana – has been institutionalized through punitive policy – framing cannabis as an illegal dangerous drug. Currently, proponents of cannabis legalization have emerged framing cannabis as normal, while proponents of criminalization seek to maintain the "war on drugs." Sifting through conflicting claims – that simultaneously frame cannabis as criminal, medical, or normal – makes it difficult to determine an accurate understanding of the plant. In Humboldt County (in Northern California) – considered the epicenter of cannabis production in the U.S. – residents are economically, politically, and socio-culturally linked to the plant. In this region cannabis issues are paramount. As a powerful conduit, the media acts as a resource for disseminating claims. Yet the media often seeks out criminal justice sources as experts of cannabis issues – this happens at the expense of public health experts and cannabis researchers. This thesis quantifies the sources of cannabis issues in Humboldt County's newspaper media and qualitatively exhibits the claims made by varying stakeholder sources. Ultimately 489 articles in four Humboldt County newspapers were analyzed. Analysis of news sources revealed evidence that the criminal justice system represented "owners" (Gustfield 1963) of cannabis issues from 1995 to 2010.