Framing Theory

Introduction Contrary to the central concept of rational choice theory (people always strive to make the most rational choices possible), Framing theory suggests that how something is presented (the “frame”) influences the choices people make. Framing theory is the Idea that people use sets of expectations to make sense of their social world and media contribute to those expectations.

Erving Goffman (1974) developed frame analysis to provide a systematic account of how we use expectations to make sense of everyday life situations and the people in them (the theory is graphically represented in the box entitled “The Framing Process”).

Goffman used the term frame to refer to a specific set of expectations used to make sense of a social situation at a given point in time. Frames are like Berger and Luckmann’s typification schemes, but they differ in certain important respects. According to Goffman, individual frames are like notes on a musical scale—they spread along a continuum from those structuring our most serious and socially significant actions to those structuring playful, trivial actions. Like the notes on a musical scale, each is different, even though there is underlying structural continuity. For social action, the continuity is such that we can learn how to frame serious actions by first learning frames for playful actions.

Recent theories of Frame and Framing Frame analysis theory as developed by Goffman is a micro-level theory focusing on how individuals learn to routinely make sense of their social world. After Goffman’s work in the 1960s and 1970s, framing theory continued to gain interest and acceptance. They created a conceptual framework (1) the social and political context in which framing takes place, and (2) the long-term social and political consequences of media-learned frames.

Most of this framing research has focused on journalism and on the way news influences our experience of the social world. Early examples of framing research applied to journalism William Gamson (1989; Gamson et al., 1992) did some significant research that has helped shape the current perspective of framing.

Views on Framing Framing can be looked into two main ways Frame Setting and Frame Building News are formed due to some internal factors like occupational constraints, news values and editorial policies. External factors like interaction between journalists and elites. Frames inevitably highlight some issues and downplay others.This is how a frame is built

Frame Building: It is the interaction between individuals and the media frames; prior knowledge and dispositions. Research shows that the impact of framing do affect how viewers view stories. In particular, the way a story is framed can affect what appears as most important, who to blame etc.

Frames and Media Media framing is the process in which an issue is portrayed in the news media. Another relevant term regarding media framing is news reality frames News accounts in which interested elites involve journalists in the construction of news drama that blurs underlying contextual realities

This allows them to stage events likely to be framed as they choose and to effectively suggest to journalists how events should be framed. The conflict in Iraq—with its accounts of weapons of mass destruction, the mushroom cloud as smoking gun, the heroic private Jessica Lynch, the toppling of Saddam’s statue, the Mission Accomplished aircraft carrier landing, President Bush’s Thanksgiving visit, and the gallant death of football star–turned-army ranger Pat Tillman—provided numerous examples of journalists framing events exactly as elites wished them to (Baran, 2011, pp. 310–311).

Framing and news Media The news media usually uses two frames Episodic and Thematic The episodic frame is predominant on news media, that depicts public issues in terms of concrete instances.They focus on discrete events that involve individuals located at specific place4s and times( Nightly crime reports).80% of the frames used in news casts are episodic. Thematic news frames are used about 20% that place public issues in a broader context by focusing on general conditions or outcome.(reports on poverty trends in U.S)