Framing is everywhere!

During my previous education, I worked as a communication specialist at an airport. Several times I had to guide journalists because for them it is not possible to film behind the customs without guidance. Once, two journalists were clearly looking for a different story than I could give. The moment they came to film, there was no colossal passenger aircraft. Only the small ones were ready for take-off. They had in mind that their story had to be about noise disturbance, and these little plains did not fit into this story. They clearly wanted to frame their message!

What is framing?
This is just one of many examples of framing. Framing happens every day and is an often-chosen strategy by journalists. But what is framing precisely? Therefore, I have to dive a little deeper into the literature. Entman (1993) defines framing as “selecting 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”. However, if you google framing you will read more often about the result of framing. This so-called framing effect is described by Scheufele and Iyengar (2014) as “behavioral or attitudinal outcomes that are not due to differences in what is being communicated, but rather to variations in how a given piece of information is being presented (or framed) in public discourse.”

Altogether, framing is the way how information is presented and has an impact on people’s behavior and attitudes. However, this is just half the story. To complete the description of framing, a distinction must be made between equivalence framing and emphasis framing. A simple example of equivalence framing then is asking someone if the glass is half full or half empty. It is the same information but presented differently. Entman’s definition is broader and focuses on making some information more prominent than others (selection and salience). This phenomenon is called emphasis framing (Scheufele & Iyengar, 2014).

Reflecting this on what the journalists at the airport did is a perfect example of emphasis framing. They wanted to make some information (the giant aircraft) more salient than other information (there are also small planes).

Journalists’ secret weapon
So, journalists like to frame their reports because this creates a more compelling message. However, to be complete about how framing in the media works, I have to add two more concepts that are closely related to framing. These concepts are called agenda setting and priming.

• McCombs and Shaw (1972) define agenda setting as “the idea that there is a strong correlation between the emphasis that mass media place on certain issues and the importance attributed to these issues by mass audiences”.
• Priming refers to “changes in the standards that people use to make political evaluations” (Iyengar & Kinder, 1987).

When making these definitions more workable, agenda-setting is that the media does not tell us what to think, but rather what to think about. On the other hand, priming can be seen as an extension of agenda-setting and is about how we perceive the message based on mental models we already have.

An example of an event that was broadcasted in many countries, was the speech about climate change of Greta Thunberg. She chose her words so well that she became world-famous. Her quote “How dare you!” was everywhere on the news. As a result, Greta was even named “person of the year 2019” by Times magazine (Tasoff, 2019). This speech and this girl would have never become world-famous if the media gave no attention to it

It’s even in your backyard!
Nevertheless, not only the media makes use of framing. Where there is language, there is framing, and therefore, you don’t have to be a journalist, marketer, or politician. Everyone uses framing in their everyday language. Duursma (2017) gave a simple example of this. His story is about pet owners. For pet owners, it is an impotent decision if you want to neuter your pet. In the Netherlands, this is also called “helping your pet”. But why is it called helping? Does surgery become more beneficial if you just use a more positive word for it?

To continue with pets. Let’s go to the backyard. What do you think about this ‘beware of the dog’ sign? Is this not just framing?

The good, the bad, and the ugly
I know, the story so far may give you the feeling that you are manipulated by these framed messages. But as with all those framed messages, also framing itself can be seen differently (more brightly). Every frame has a distinct emotion: fear, amusement, respect, disgust, etcetera (Fledge, 2017). Dependent on the feeling you want to evoke, framing can lead to positive and negative reactions. For example, in these corona-times, it can be used to evoke the emotion to care more for each other. This can be noticed in many ‘corona-ads’, like the one below. Isn’t that a beautiful cause of framing?

Another health-care-related example relates to this news article. This article will probably lead to a negative reaction or even more specifically, aversion against health care. If you can get ill from a vaccine, no one wants this medicine anymore, right?

Everywhere you look, everywhere you see! But how about you?
That framing is everywhere, may be clear now. It is a powerful tool to convince your audience. But as a communication specialist, would you choose to use it yourself? Or is this one step too far? I’ll leave that up to you. Independently of what your answer is here, the main message of this story is; be aware of your actions and be very critical towards everything you hear or see because no one is immune for framed messages.

References

• Duursma, L. (2017, February 22). Een must-see voor iedereen die framing wil begrijpen.
• Debatrix. https://www.debatrix.com/nl/2017/02/een-must-see-voor-voor-iedereen-die-framing-wil-begrijpen/
• Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm.
• Fledge, S. (2017, October 12). Framing Theory: How The News Shapes The Way We Think. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuwNCyYxxlA
• Iyengar, S., & Kinder, D. R. (2010). News that matters: Television and American opinion. University of Chicago Press.
• McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public opinion quarterly, 36(2), 176-187.
• Scheufele, D.A., & Iyengar, S. (2014). The State of Framing Research: A Call for New Directions. Kenski, & K.H. Jamieson (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Tasoff, H. (2019, September 27). Why Greta Thunberg is so powerful. University of California. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/why-greta-thunberg-so-powerful