This dissertation is concerned with the cultural production of news and the politics of media representation. In the summer of 2003, and well into the political campaign season of 2004, the controversial issue of same-sex marriage moved to the center stage of mainstream cultural debate. The intense media coverage surrounding the issue produced narratives about gay and lesbian life and the role of marriage in our society. Combining perspectives from mass communication scholarship, cultural studies, political communication, and social movement critique, this dissertation analyzes mainstream news reporting on the same-sex marriage debate, and interrogates the aims and challenges of the activists who sought to shape coverage of their issues and their community. This dissertation employs a multi-method research design that combines textual analysis, content analysis and in-depth interviews with social activists in order to (1) determine the broad boundaries of media content in both print and television news, (2) interrogate the specific meanings of media representation, and (3) examine the behind-the-scenes activities that shaped the production of news.

Media analysis shows how coverage of the same-sex marriage debate highlighted a simplistic, two-sided conflict that silenced alternative perspectives; provided a platform for historic homophobic rhetoric; relied on standard, unbalanced (often anti-gay) sources; and framed the issue within "official" institutions of power that have historically criminalized and marginalized the gay community. Examining patterns in news coverage for the demographic profiles of couples who came to symbolize the movement, this dissertation found that the face(s) of gay marriage emerged in predictable ways: one that was overwhelmingly white, middle- to upper-class, and anchored to dominant notions of masculinity and femininity. This media analysis shows how, in an era of unprecedented media visibility, gay and lesbian couples who appeared in the news were seen but rarely heard.

Interviews with informants from the leading national gay rights organizations revealed that activists pursued the marriage agenda as a potential corrective to the images of gay and lesbian life they had seen in the press and popular culture. The same-sex marriage issue offered opportunities and challenges for activists who struggled to "sell" marriage equality to news audiences and craft "positive" narratives and images about gay and lesbian couples and families. Activists produced and employed discourses that softened and normalized gay life for a heterosexual audience, attempting to counter news images of seedy gay bars, urban street life, flamboyant drag queens and gay pride paraders. This dissertation critiques these activist strategies and news narratives, arguing that these marriage discourses may stigmatize those (non-married) gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer citizens who do not the normative mold in this new era of visibility.