Framing

1
Framing

• Sigurd Allern,
• Trends in international journalism

2
News as frame

• News is a window of the world. Through its frame,
  American learn of themselves and others, of their
  institutions, leaders, and life styles, and those
  of other nations and their peoples
• But, like any frame that delineates a world, the
  news frame may be considered problematic. The
  view through a window depends upon whether the
  window is large or small, has many panes or few,
  whether the glass is opaque or clear, whether the
  window faces a street or a backyard. (Gaye
  Tuchman, Making News, 1980)

3
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.) Framing Public Life,
  L. Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey/London)
• 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 frame suggests what the controversy is
  about, the essence of the issue (Gamson
  Modigliani 1989, in Vreese 27)

4
Defining framing (2)

• Frames are..persistent patterns of cognition,
  interpretation, and presentation, of selection,
  emphasis and exclusion by which symbol-handlers
  routinely organize discourse (Gitlin 1980 7)
• Frames are ..interpretative packages that give
  meaning to an issue (Gamson Modigliani, 1989
  3)

5
Journalistic tools in framing the news

• Choosing the news angle
• Selecting the sources
• Formulating the headline of the story
• Summing up the main point of the story
• Choosing the right picture

6
How was the news item introduced?

• Headline or prefatory statement by reporter or
  anchor?
• What expectations did the introduction create
  about the story?
• What other introduction could appropriately have
  been used? How would other introductions have
  reframed the report?
• Was there a summary statement at the end of the
  report? What interpretation, if any, did it
  impose on the report? (Jamieson Campbell 115)

7
Frame-building

• Frame-building are factors internal and external
  to journalism that determine how journalists and
  news organizations frame issues. Internal factors
  are to an example journalistic news values,
  market strategies and organizational
  constraints.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)

8
Frame-setting

• Frame-setting refers to the interaction between
  media frames and individuals prior knowledge and
  predispositions. Frames in the news may affect
  interpretation, learning, and evaluation of
  issues and events. The consequences of
  frame-setting can be considered both on the
  individual and societal level (Vreese 2003 24-25)

9
Generic news frames

• Generic news frames are general and not confined
  to a specific issue. Examples
• Horse race frame (Politics as a game with
  winners and losers)
• Episodic and thematic news frames (Iyengar
  1991)
• Conflict frame
• Economic consequence frame
• Responsibility frame
• Morality frame

10
Issue-specific news frames

• Media frames in specific news stories
• The war in Iraq (occupation frame versus war
  against terrorism-frame)
• Closing of industrial plants economic
  necessity frame versus social
  responsibility/employment frame
• Predator policy Environmental protect the wolf
  bear frame versus protect the farm animals
  frame

11
Framing contests

• If political actors are to succeed in getting
  their frames wholly or partly presented in the
  media, they have to adhere to certain news
  conventions and genre demands from news
  organisations giving priority to conflicts, power
  struggles and drama which can be personalized.
  Often politicians will try to avoid negative
  news.
• When factions in a political party are competing
  for the leadership, it will be of vital
  importance to influence how this power struggle
  is presented and commented in the news. News
  frames (like focusing on the elements of
  conflict) are therefore supplemented by more
  political frames (defining the problems and
  proposing solutions) which are negotiated between
  political actors and news organisations.

12
A strong emphasis on conflict

• The study shows that when European issues are
  covered in the news this often happens with a
  strong emphasis on conflict. This presence of the
  conflict frame suggests that the considerations
  made by journalists when choosing events and
  issues for the news are translated into how these
  are presented in the news. Emphasizing the
  conflict may justify the publication of a news
  story above and beyond its news value and at the
  same time provides journalists with a clear
  conception of how to package and present the
  news. (Vreese 164)

13
What is the Norwegian interest in this

• During our days of observation at the NRK
  Dagsrevyen the political news editor, Kyrre
  Nakkim, said, When working with EU topics we
  often follow the reports from the Swedish
  Broadcasting Corporation (SVT), and ask
  ourselves what is the Norwegian interest in
  this?
• The standard requirement of framing EU issues in
  a national context is also looked upon by some
  interviewees as a limitation. The most important
  professional challenge is to combine a focus on
  Norwegian cases and Norwegian special interests
  with an understanding of the broader picture and
  the longer trajectories of development in
  Europe, said the foreign news editor at
  Aftenposten, Per Kristian Haugen.

14
The importance of a national angle

• The importance of a national angle can be
  interpreted in more ideological terms as a type
  of traditional nationalism. However, we think the
  most important element here is the market and
  audience orientations of the news organisations,
  a trait common to most news media all over the
  world. How does this affect us, what are the
  consequences for our area and our daily lives?
  are standard questions that the news media try to
  answer.
• Geographical, cultural and political proximity
  represent an informal, standard market contract
  between news organisations and both their
  audiences and their advertisers.

15
An European framing?

• A broader, pan-European perspective of course
  also exists, but only as a supplement to the
  dominant national framing. A constructed
  European framing will, in our opinion, only be
  typical for European news media that either have
  an international audience or are newspapers read
  by elite groups participating in some of the more
  exclusive public spheres of the EU.
• The news organisations are of course independent
  actors that in different ways influence the
  political and cultural developments in their
  countries. At the same time they are mediators,
  channels of communication and arenas for debate,
  normally communicating in a language specific to
  one or more nation states. Their role as part of
  a European public sphere will always have this
  limitation.