Showing papers on "Frame analysis published in 2004"

The Neglect of Power in Recent Framing Research

Abstract: This article provides a critique of recent developments in research examining media frames and their influence. We contend that a number of trends in framing research have neglected the relationship between media frames and broader issues of political and social power. This neglect is a product of a number of factors, including conceptual problems in the definition of frames, the inattention to frames sponsorship, the failure to examine framing contests within wider political and social contexts, and the reduction of framing to a form of media effects. We conclude that framing research needs to be linked to the political and social questions regarding power central to the media hegemony thesis, and illustrate this focus by exploring how framing research can contribute to an understanding of the interaction between social movements and the news media. Examinations of the production, character, and influence of news stories represent an enduring focus of media scholarship. A variety of approaches, including gatekeeping, agenda setting, organizational studies of news work, and analyses of news bias, have explored either the gathering of news or journalism’s political role. In recent decades, a rapidly expanding research literature on news frames has sought to provide a comprehensive perspective on the production, reception, and influence of news texts. This article provides a critique of recent developments in research examining media frames and their influence. We contend that a number of trends in framing research have neglected the relationship between media frames and broader issues of political and social power. This neglect is a product of conceptual problems in the definition of frames, the inattention to frame sponsorship, the failure to examine framing contests within wider political and social contexts, and the reduction of framing to a form of media effects. In keeping with early sociological research on framing (Gitlin, 1980; Tuchman, 1978), we suggest that framing processes need to be examined within the contexts of the distribution of political and social power. We, therefore, call for the integration of framing research with the

Between Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman: between discourse in the abstract and face-to-face interaction

Abstract: Michel Foucault's ‘archaeology’ and Erving Goffman's interpersonal sociology are complementary. Both are essential for understanding how classifications of people interact with the people classified, and hence for the author's studies of ‘making up people’. The paper begins by explaining how that project is rooted in an ‘existentialist’ conception of the person. It then uses Goffman's Asylums and Foucault's Folie et deraison - both published in 1961 - to illustrate how these methodologies reinforce each other.

Routinizing Frame Analysis through the Use of CAQDAS

Abstract: Even though frame analysis has become a popular analytical framework in media studies and social movement research, the methodological underpinnings of the empirical identification of frames lack systematization and have consequently remained underdeveloped. This paper consolidates recent advances in the empirical measurement of frames and explores, in how far computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) can extend on these methodologies. Because framing has become a fairly widely used but ill-defined concept, the paper will start with a brief delineation of framing theory as it is understood for present purposes. Next, current attempts to measure frames empirically in a systematic fashion will be discussed and a methodology, which synthesizes some of these approaches will be proposed. This methodology attempts in a first step to draw on existing knowledge on metanarratives to avoid a purely inductive identification of frames. Additionally, automatic word mapping tools such as Leximancer, Sphinx Survey Lexica are suggested as interpretative aids. In a second step, the analyst identifies a set of keywords, key phrases, and possibly audial or visual symbols that indicate frames in his data. These indicators are then used in a third step to semiautomatically identify frames in the remainder of the data. Keywords that might acquire different meanings in different contexts are inspected in their contexts by the analyst, who decide on their coding. This method avoids both the rigidities that come with fully automatic keyword clustering, which may lead to the inclusion non-interpretable keywords as well as the exclusion of so-called stop words such as prepositions and articles, which under certain circumstances might indeed be the strongest indicators for certain frames. At the same time it allows for a degree of routinization and systematization in frame analysis, whose quality has notoriously depended on the creativity of the framing researchers. Five CAQDAS – ATLAS.ti, Kwalitan, MAXqda, NVivo, and Qualrus – are examined with respect to their usability in this type of framing research.

Mobilizing Mothers for War: Cross-National Framing Strategies in Nicaragua’s Contra War

Abstract: Studies document that in wartime, states often employ maternal imagery and mobilize women as mothers.Yet we know relatively little about when and why states and their opposition do so. This study seeks to build theory for this phenomenon through frame analysis of the Nicaraguan Contra War. The author proposes that maternal framing, aimed at mothers as well as a broader national and international audience, benefits militaries in at least three ways: (1) channeling maternal grievances, (2) disseminating propaganda through “apolitical” mothers, and (3) evoking emotions and sympathy nationally and internationally. This study furthermore explores three underexamined features of both gendered studies of war and frame analysis: (1) It applies frame theory to states, (2) it develops our understanding of crossnational gendered framing strategies, and (3) it introduces gender framing to the study of war.

Using Goffman's Frameworks to Explain Presence and Reality

Abstract: This paper defines presence in terms of frames and involvement [1]. The value of this analysis of presence is demonstrated by applying it to several issues that have been raised about presence: residual awareness of nonmediation, imaginary presence, presence as categorical or continuum, and presence breaks. The paper goes on to explore the relationship between presence and reality. Goffman introduced frames to try to answer the question, “Under what circumstances do we think things real?” Under frame analysis there are three different conditions under which things are considered unreal, these are explained and related to the experience of presence. Frame analysis is used to show why virtual environments are not usually considered to be part of reality, although the virtual spaces of phone interaction are considered real. The analysis also yields practical suggestions for extending presence within virtual environments.

Populist discourse : an Adornian rhetorical analysis of the emotional appeal of Pauline Hanson's One Nation

Abstract: This thesis offers a sociological explanation for the electoral appeal of Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON) by performing a discourse analysis of the parties manifesto. This manifesto is comprised of the public speeches, parliamentary speeches and media releases of PHON delivered during the period of Hanson's term in the Australian Federal Parliament 1996-1998. The analysis is a synthesis of methodological approaches originated by Theodor Adorn and Erving Goffrnan. These approaches are rhetorical analysis and frame analysis. The combination of these approaches augmented by the simultaneous identification of key thematic domains allows the discourse analysis to be linked to issues canvassed by the Australian Election Study 1998 (AES 1998). It is proposed in the thesis that Hanson's political style is of the populist type that is demonstrated to be increasingly prevalent in Western politics. It is the paucity of sociological explanation that focuses on the manifestos of contemporary populist politics in order to understand the mechanism of appeal of such political movements that warrants this in-depth analysis of an Australian example of the phenomena. Firstly, the work of Adorno is revisited by considering the historical climate in which he was working in the 1930s including the development of The Frankfurt School. During this time, Adorn developed a 'Gallery of Tricks and Devices' for analysing the radio programs of the fascist Presbyterian preacher, Martin Luther Thomas. The Gallery is actually a typology of rhetorical devices that Adorn identified in the speech of Thomas. Thomas employed a populist style and is known for his emotional appeals to his audience. This typology was then applied to the manifesto of 116 documents comprised of public and parliamentary speeches and media releases produced in Hanson's name from her election to Federal Parliament in 1996 until her defeat in 1998. The objective of this step of the discourse analysis was to assess the utility of Adorno's typology. A content analysis was also performed to ascertain the weighted means of the prevalence of the devices within each of the document categories. The results suggested that the typology required some revision to enhance its suitability for the efficient analysis of contemporary populist discourse. A Revised Typology was formulated and applied. This new typology has the potential to be useful in the analysis of the manifestos of a variety of political movements. This rhetorical analysis gives insight into the potential impact on listeners of particular excerpts of speech. The impact is the transference of messages about particular issues and is frequently emotive in tone. The incidence of each rhetorical device is composed of one or more sentences. The key issues identified were grouped according to theme. Three key thematic domains are identified and are labelled Cultural, Social and Economic Sovereignty. A contemporary form of Goffman's (1974) frame analysis developed by Snow and Benford (1986) informs the scrutiny of the discourse. The purpose of this step of the analysis is to ascertain what the overall potential impact of the collective effect of the rhetorical devices is on audiences. The term applied by Snow and Benford to describe the collective impact of the meaning of a particular discourse is Master Frame. It is asserted that the Master Frame of the PHON discourse is an Identity Frame. It has been suggested that a factor lacking in frame analysis generally, is the absence of the acknowledgement of the role of emotion in attracting people to political or social movements. The incorporation into the analysis of the application of a rhetorical typology addresses this shortcoming. It also serves to identify the emotional component of the discourse that is associated with the populist political style. The thesis claims that PHON's appeal is founded on successfully communicating its master frame to the constituency via its populist style. Furthermore that that this populist style relies heavily on emotionally charged presentations by the leader. The identification of the key thematic domains of the discourse is necessary in order to establish if there is indeed a link between the master frame of the discourse and PHON's appeal to the constituency. This is achieved by the statistical analysis of the AES 1998 data set. The first step of this analysis was to create a reliable scale to measure respondents 'feelings' towards PHON's leader, Pauline Hanson. Ten items were selected from the data sets that address aspects of respondent's feelings towards Hanson. This scale was labelled the Emotional Energy Scale following Randall Collins' (1988b) definition of this concept. The data set was then searched for items that addressed issues encapsulated by the thematic domains. Section D. Election Issues, E. Social Policy and G. Constitution, Rights and Minorities were found to contain items that corresponded to the thematic domains. Section D. related to Economic Sovereignty; Section E. related to Social Sovereignty and Section G. related to Cultural Sovereignty. Factor analysis was used to create scales from items within each of these sections that addressed issues that dominated the PHON manifesto. Regression analysis was then employed. The results indicate that high levels of positive Emotional Energy for Hanson is predictive of shared attitudes towards issues by respondents with Hanson. This suggests that there is a strong correlation between the feelings held for people towards PHON and the level of support for PHON's position on issues. These findings indicate that Hanson successfully employed populist rhetoric to achieve a remarkable level of support for her new political party. However it must be acknowledged that an audience already existed for whom the PHON message could resonate. The demographic characteristics of PHON this audience of voters has been described at length elsewhere and this work is acknowledged. It must however be appreciated that though Pauline Hanson has experienced the inevitable decline of the charismatic leader, those who demonstrated support for her still reside in the electorate. These people may still be waiting for the right 'style' of voice to emerge on the political scene to represent them. This thesis provides an innovative approach for understanding the mechanism of populist appeal in contemporary politics. It proposes a revised typology for assessing populist rhetoric and it is the first thorough, systematic analysis of PHON's manifesto.

The case for partisan research: erving goffman and researching social inequalities

Abstract: The recent narrative, if not postmodern, turn within the tradition of ethnographic research has not eased difficult questions concerning how best inequalities can be researched by the social sciences. Whilst important additions have been made to traditional concerns with social class, race and gender, such as age (but not purely gerontology), disability and the rural/urban divide, epistemological questions remain over how theoretical and conceptual concerns about inequality also be met in field research.

Frame Analysis of the Living Wage Campaign and Social Work Implications

Abstract: The general aim of this study was to examine the living wage movement and how frame alignment fits into social work practice. This research was developed from a limited empirical and theoretical base surrounding the living wage as a social movement. Frame alignment is becoming a tool that more and more people should know how to use. Frame alignment has been a key component in propelling social movements into society in order to effect change. This research is an examination of frame alignment, specifically the living wage movement and how it fits into effective social work practice. The data were obtained from a convenience sample of 487 students from a public university in middle Tennessee. Three different frames were developed and distributed to 500 college students with a 94. 7% response rate. The data were collected from November 2003 to November 2004 through the use of a survey via an experimental design. Three different frameworks were distributed in order to gain insight on framing issues surrounding the living wage. Frame A was an economic justice frame, frame B was a social justice frame and frame C was a control frame. Findings from this study indicate a strong support for the social justice frame. ANOV A and t-tests have shown a statistical significance between Frame B and support for a living wage [F (2,482)= 5.301, p� .006]. In addition it was discovered that women were not only more likely to support a living wage but they were also more likely to help organize a living wage.