Crisis exploitation: political and policy impacts of framing contests

Abstract

When societies are confronted with major, disruptive emergencies, the fate of politicians and public policies hangs in the balance. Both government actors and their critics will try to escape blame for their occurrence, consolidate/strengthen their political capital, and advance/defend the policies they stand for. Crises thus generate framing contests to interpret events, their causes, and the responsibilities and lessons involved in ways that suit their political purposes and visions of future policy directions. This article dissects these processes and articulates foundations for a theory of crisis exploitation. Drawing on 15 cases of crisis-induced framing contests, we identify potentially crucial factors that may explain both the political (effects on incumbent office-holders/institutions) and policy (effects on programs) impacts of crises

Securitisation of Climate Change: The Risk of Exaggeration

“…Labelling them as crises and emergencies, using the rhetoric of calamity, lifts them out of the ordinary and signals the need for quick action. Boin et al (2009) identify the same phenomenon as one of three 'crisis frames' that may be in contest when something happens or is feared to happen: presenting a crisis as an apocalypse, in contrast negating or denying a crisis, or presenting crisis as an opportunity to radically change course. A crisis or disaster can be a 'focusing event', opening a policy window that can be used to insert a certain agenda (Lowry 2006).…”

Shock events and flood risk management: a media analysis of the institutional long-term effects of flood events in the Netherlands and Poland

“…Flood events may stabilize policies (cf. Birkland 1998, Driessen and De Gier 1999, Boin et al 2009), but also cause catalytic changes by accelerating the policy change process (cf. Baumgartner and Jones 1993, Kingdon 1995, Lowry 2006.…”

Television Frames of the 2008 Liberal and New Democrat Accord

“…Political players use frames to encourage audiences to think about issues in a particular way (e.g., Gross & D'Ambrosio, 2004;Iyengar & Simon, 1993;Price, Tewksbury, & Powers, 1997). Framing contests are especially important during a political crisis (Boin, Hart, & McConnell, 2009). One reason for their heightened importance is that during a crisis, the media are more attuned to the two sides of the conflict, almost to the exclusion of all other voices.…”