Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm

Abstract

In response to the proposition that communication lacks disciplinary status because of deficient core knowledge, I propose that we turn an ostensible weakness into a strength. We should identify our mission as bringing together insights and theories that would otherwise remain scattered in other disciplines. Because of the lack of interchange among the disciplines, hypotheses thoroughly discredited in one field may receive wide acceptance in another. Potential research paradigms remain fractured, with pieces here and there but no comprehensive statement to guide research. By bringing ideas together in one location, communication can aspire to become a master discipline that synthesizes related theories and concepts and exposes them to the most rigorous, comprehensive statement and exploration. Reaching this goal would require a more self-conscious determination by communication scholars to plumb other fields and feed back their studies to outside researchers. At the same time, such an enterprise would enhance the theoretical rigor of communication scholarship proper.The idea of "framing" offers a case study of just the kind of scattered conceptualization I have identified. Despite its omnipresence across the social sciences and humanities, nowhere is there a general statement of framing theory that shows exactly how frames become embedded within and make themselves manifest in a text, or how framing influences thinking. Analysis of this concept suggests how the discipline of communication might contribute something unique: synthesizing a key concept's disparate uses, showing how they invariably involve communication, and constructing a coherent theory from them.Whatever its specific use, the concept of framing consistently offers a way to describe the power of a communicating text. Analysis of frames illuminates the precise way in which influence over a human consciousness is exerted by the transfer (or communication) of information from Robert M. Entman is an associate professor of communication studies,

Angelina Jolie’s faulty gene: newspaper coverage of a celebrity’s preventive bilateral mastectomy in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom

“…The concept of "framing" emphasizes the selective presentation of specific topics, facts, controversies, actors, and assertions in news stories. 21,22 Frames are routinely used in news reporting to call attention to some aspects of reality while obscuring other elements. These interpretive story lines provide a context within which to understand the issues being presented and can significantly influence the audiences' perceptions by limiting the range of interpretations on complex topics.…”

Framing Environmental Risks in the Baltic Sea: A News Media Analysis

“…As used in contemporary media studies, framing generally contains two main dimensions; on the one hand, it refers to the way certain aspects in a text are made more salient, and on the other hand it is about how these frames affect the way people perceive and construct reality. According to Robert Entman: to frame is to ''select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communication text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, casual interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation'' for the item described (Entman 1993).…”

“…Framing analysis can be used to analyze media texts (e.g., news articles), and how selection, focus of certain words, phrases, or ideas may contribute to shape public perception (Entman 1993;Reis 2008).…”

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“…These 'perspectives' or 'frames' determine what is included or excluded from stories. A frame is the result of putting an issue in perspective so that it will express a certain meaning (33,(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44) .…”