Framing Theory in News Journalism: Understanding the Power of Interpretation, Slides of Media Management

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The Construction of

Frames in News

Journalism

Sigurd Allern, professor, dr.

polit, University of Oslo/Volda

University College

Framing theory

 Framing theory - or theories about framing - today represent one of the most common research approaches in the field of communication and media studies.

 The origins of the frame metaphor lie in other fields like cognitive psychology, anthropology (Bateson) and sociology (Goffman).

 A frame specifies the relationship between a number of connected elements in a text, helping us to define or interpret what is going on, making sense out of events

A Swedish example

 Expressen (18.9.2001): 47% against US attack in Afghanistan. DN (27.9.2001): “Seven out of ten support US attack”

 Expressen‟s question: Do you find it right wrong that the US invade Afghanistan with military troops?

 DN‟s question: Do you find it right or wrong of prime minister Persson and the other prime ministers to support the US‟s right to attack?

Media frames (Todd Gitlin, 1980)

 “What makes the world beyond direct experience look natural is a media frame”.

 “Frames are principles of selection, emphasis, and presentation composed of little tacit theories about what exists, what happens and what matters”

 “Thus for organizational reasons alone, frames are unavoidable, and journalism is organized to regulate their production”

Defining framing

 “Frames are organizing principles that are socially shared and persistent over time, that work symbolically to meaningfully structure the social world” (Stephen D. Reese (2001: 11) in Reese, Gandy & Grant (eds.):

 “To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text” (Robert Entman 1993: 52)

 “The essence of framing is selection to prioritize some facts, images or developments over others, thereby unconsciously promoting one particular interpretation of events (Norris, Kern & Just

How frames work

 “The frame suggests what the controversy is about, the essence of the issue” (Gamson & Modigliani 1989, in Vreese: 27)

 Frames are ..interpretative packages that give meaning to an issue (Gamson & Modigliani, 1989: 3)

 Framing involves implicit information between the lines, the frame provides a context for the interpretation of a news message

Choosing the news angle

 Journalistens vinkling kan sammenlignes med:

 ”…en tøjsnor, hvor kun de relevante stykker information er hængt til tørre, og den hjælper på den måde journalisten at strukturere informationerne omkring en central ide og er dermed også med at koncentrere læserens opmærksomhed om de udvalgte sider av emnet.”  Mogens Meilby (1996): Journalistikkens grundtrin. Århus: Ajour.

Framing contests

 The frame building process takes place in a continuous interaction between journalists and elites and social movements. The outcomes of the frame-building process are the frames manifest in the text (Vreese 2003: 24, 43)

 If politicians or PR-practitioners are to succeed getting their frames wholly or partly presented in the media, they have to adhere to certain news conventions and genre demands from commercial news organisations giving priority to conflicts, power struggles and drama (Allern 2001, Ihlen & Allern 2007)

..the cultural approach

 3 The use of frames seem normal, natural and the social construction are often invisible. Frames as a power mechanism.

 4 Frames are part of the culture, more stable than personal schemata

 5 A frame changes gradually or little over time

 6 Frames are negotiated and part of a social interaction

Frames are not the same as topics

 Topic : Asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants

 Alternative frames (van Gorp 2007):

 Misgovernment frame

 Intruder/strangers frame

 Our hospitality frame

 The innocent victim frame

 The donor/support frame

 The “not in my backyard” frame

Bali, Moscow Theatre, Mombasa

hotel: The same Story?

Framing early student protest against the war against Vietnam (1965)

 Todd Gitlin: The whole world is watching (1980): analyzing the earliest framing devices in main stream media outlets.

 “15000 White House pickets denounce Vietnam War”

Framing the WTO

 “A few Starbucks windows smashed by a hundred „anarchists‟ where all the shallower news reports needed to see to decide “what‟s the story”, even if tens or hundreds of thousands of demonstrators were marching by playfully, in peace” (Todd Gitlin about Seattle 1999)

Contrasting guilt and innocence

 Robert Entman (in Projections of Power, 2004), comparing the media coverage of a Soviet Air Force Fighter who shot down Korean Air Flight 007 (1983, killing 269 people) and the coverage of a US Navy Ship (Vincennes) who in 1988 shot down an Iranian Air Flight 655 (killing 290).

 The media framing varied dramatically. Soviet covered with “the murder frame”, US by the “technical glitch frame”. Contrasting magnitude, causes and the use of humanizing or neutral terms (quantitatively)