1. Mass Communication Theories
Lecture 4
Framing
Vasyl V. Kucherenko

2. Artists know that the frame placed around a painting can affect how viewers interpret and react to the painting itself. As a result, some artists take great care in how they present their work and choose a frame that they hope will help audiences see the image in just the right way.

3. Journalists – consciously or subconsciously – engage in essentially the same process when they decide how to describe the world. They choose images and words that have the power to influence how audiences interpret and evaluate issues and policies.
(Tewksbury & Scheufele, 2009)

4. Unification Diversity
Need for “bringing together insights and theories that would otherwise remain scattered”
(Entman, 1993, p.51)
“Theoretical and paradigmatic diversity has led to a comprehensive view of the framing process.”
(D’Angelo, 2002, p.871)

5. Definitions of framing
“Frames are mental structures that shape the way we see the world. As a result, they shape the goals we seek, the plans we make, the way we act, and what counts as a good or bad outcome of our actions. In politics our frames shape our social policies. To change our frames is to change all of this. Reframing is social change" (Lakoff, 2004).

6. “…the central organizing idea for news content that supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion, and elaboration“
(Tankard, 2009)

7. “…framing refers to the process by which people develop a particular conceptualization of an issue or reorient their thinking about an issue”
(Chong and Druckman, 2007).
“…the process of selecting and highlighting some aspects of a perceived reality, and enhancing the salience of an interpretation and evaluation of that reality”.
(Entman, 2004)

8. “Framing essentially involves selection and salience.
To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described.”
(Entman, 1993)

9. “...information that conveys different perspectives on some event or issue” (Iyengar, 2010)

10. How framing effects differ from…
Agenda-setting effects (accessibility)
main distinction lies between two important characteristics– accessibility and applicability
frequent repetition increases makes it more
of information its accessibility important for
about an issue the audience
How agenda-setting works

11. ‘packaging’ the information in a specific way through choosing particular ideas, words, catchphrases, and images
making those elements applicable to the issue
facilitating the interpretation of the issue
in an intended direction
How framing works

12. NB! Accessibility and applicability usually complement each other:
the more accessible the higher the chances
information is it will be employed for
in the memory issue interpretation
the higher the chances the more applicable
they will be used while the elements of the info
evaluating the issue to the issue

13. How framing effects differ from…
Information effects
presenting new information about an issue, event or person and the acquiring of that information by individuals

14. Framing doesn’t imply specifically learning something new from messages
but instead…
promotes the building of specific associations between information described in messages
and related concepts in the memory of the receivers of the messages
‘priming’

15. Framing effects relate not to learning new information but to how information is packaged and presented. (Druckman, 2002; Nelson et al, 1997b) “…a phrase, image or statement suggests a particular meaning or interpretation of an issue” (Tewksbury and Scheufele, 2009)

16. How framing effects differ from…
Persuasion
seeks to affect and change attitudes and opinions by overtly presenting strong arguments or evidence to this purpose;
the one being persuaded usually knows or, at least, can guess about the intentions of the persuader.

17. Framing is usually covert people are often unaware
of frames and their
possible influence.

18. Framing concerns with how the information will be interpreted, not with presenting arguments
what inferences and opinions audience members will come to by themselves after encountering the framed information.
What do you see?

19. Media frames -. “a central organizing idea or story line
Media frames - “a central organizing idea or story line that provides meaning to an unfolding strip of events.”
Individual frames - mental schemas used for organizing and processing information.
Media Audience Individual
frames exposure to news frames
Increasing accessibility and applicability of frames

20. I. Valence (emphasis) & Issue frames
Valence frames – “casting the same information in either a positive or a negative light”
(Druckman, 2004)

21. Issue frames - focusing attention on a narrow aspect /
Issue frames - focusing attention on a narrow aspect / attribute of a certain issue, person etc.
I already heard something about that… Hmmm…
Second-level agenda setting???

22. II. Episodic & Thematic frames
Thematic frames – issues are considered at the level of society, and all responsibility is assigned to the society at large.
Episodic frames – issues are considered at the level of particular events or persons, and all responsibility is assigned to individuals.

23. Foci of episodic & thematic frames
Episodic frames
Thematic frames
Individual
Issue
Single event
Trends over time
Private realm (individuals’ psychology, behavior)
Public realm (the surrounding environment, public institutions)
Considering a problem through life and experience of a particular person
Considering a problem through government policies, public attitudes etc.

24. III. Frames as a keynote of a message
Shooting down in 1980’s 2 civilian aircrafts..
(how the U.S. media framed it?)
of the Iran Air by of the Korean Airlines by
the U.S. military the Soviet Union military
“technical problem” “moral outrage”

25. Framing & Reasoning Devices
Framing devices - special stylistic structures that provided frameworks within which a problem could be viewed:
Catchphrases - expressions that create a specific image (e.g., someone is а flip-flopper - a description of a person who changes his or her opinion too often).
Depictions - assume using lexical devices for descriptions - examples, modifiers or similes
(e.g., he looks like an angry bull).

26. Exemplars - illustrations of a discussed category
(e.g., Jack the Ripper - as an example of a murderous maniac).
Metaphors - describe one idea by means of another
(e.g., Her voice is music to his ears).
Visual images - pictures or graphics accompanying the text.

27. Reasoning devices - suggest justifications or
Reasoning devices - suggest justifications or reasons for certain positions
Appeals to principle - imply the use of a moral appeal.
Consequences - depict potential outcomes/results.
Roots - explain causes of events.
Using such devices, the media encourage people
to think about events in analogous ways
(e.g., comparing Syrian President Assad to Adolf Hitler)

28. Priming Frames prime citizens’ responses to information
“by activating associations between the information highlighted in the text and concepts already stored in their schema systems”
(Entman, 2004)
Priming - an effect of some preceding stimulus on subsequent evaluation of an issue, event or person.

30. Relation between framing & priming
Framing raising salience
of an issue/idea
Priming activating nodes/schemas in memory
Reaction encouraging audiences to think,
feel, decide in a particular way

31. Two-faced Janus of framing
in positive terms for in negative terms as the facilitating processing “strategy to manipulate and understanding and deceive individuals” media information (Chong & Druckman, 2007)

32. Framing in negative terms serves as soft persuasion
“…to promote a (1) particular problem definition, (2) causal interpretation, (3) moral evaluation, and/or (4) treatment recommendation for the item described” (Entman,1993) a ready template for making judgements as to (1) what are the causes and (2) who is responsible for an issue, event, problem etc, and (3) what should be done to change the situation.

33. Manipulation = one-sided/biased information + negatively framed information + ‘loaded’ language (using framing and reasoning devices)

36. “We know from cognitive science that people do not think in facts
“We know from cognitive science that people do not think in facts. People think in frames... To be accepted, the truth must fit people's frames. If the facts do not fit a frame, the frame stays, and the facts bounce off". (Lakoff, 2004)

37. Reflections due Monday, Oct.24, 11:00p.m. (23:00)
Home readings (to be sent by me):
Shoemaker, P. J. & Vos, T. P. (2008). Media gatekeeping.
Barzilai-Nahon, K. (2008). Toward a theory of network gatekeeping: A framework for exploring information control.
Chin-Fook, L. & Simmonds, H. (2011). Redefining gatekeeping theory for a digital generation.