Abstract
I. Problem Statement
For many years, the powerful "framing theory" has enjoyed a high popularity in various areas: from news analysis to audience analysis, from propaganda strategies to advertising campaigns, from crisis management to decision making and so on. "Framing", in general, is a process that helps organize and direct the way audiences perceive and evaluate an issue through outlining a set of considerations (Van Gorp, 2007; Entman, 1993; Gamson, 1989). It is traditionally studied as an effort-demanding process, requiring journalists to construct a picture or to think of an angle for a piece of news. Striding into the digital age, news produced and discussed at grass-root level is not a novelty anymore. Effects of deliberated framing and professional constructing of news have been mediated by audience's reframing process. Especially for Internet users, the Internet offers new possibilities for them to participate actively in news events and social affairs. Without doubt, audience framing will play a more vital role with the expansion of new media use and the development of social network. But still, researchers tend to interpret framing as a deliberate process and focus on changeable frames dependent on producers' own predispositions. However, an interesting, significant, yet unexplored area of framing is the opposing situation that some frames will keep constant all the time, to different people, on a broad range of issues, and even across various types of medium. Contrary to the conventional frames, this kind of frames is much more effort saving or intuitional so to speak, and may carry longer-term influence without awareness. Further, these unconscious frames may reveal the latent structure behind the global "digital convergence". Taking these two types of frames (deliberate and situational frames vs. unconscious and consistent frames) into consideration, a "latent structure" behind frame system urges and investigation. The emergence of online forum and social network services provide us perfect sources to acquire audiences' perceptions. By comparing these online audience frames (as a reframing process) with media frames, we hope to articulate the commonly shared, unchangeable and even unconscious frames as well as to find out their forming causes and consequences in terms of media effects. Through this study, I will try to make this unconsciousness dazzling. Both theoretical construction and empirical examination will be involved in this study, hoping to demonstrate a complete picture of this alternative approach on framing theory.
II. Research Questions
I call for a return to Goffman's concept of "frame analysis" to investigate the basic cognitive structure in perceiving reality through an unconscious manner which could be applied to both traditional media framing and online audience reframing. By focusing on what kinds of frames have been remained instead of what have been changed, this research intends to articulate "frame processing" from a cognitive approach and detect the formation and consequences of the unconscious but deeply entrenched "frames in thought". This paper proposes a "central-peripheral frame system theory" derived from ELM and Milton Rokeach's "structure of human belief systems". Based on this theoretical framework, we clarified two types of frames: the "value-based frames" and the "attitude-driven frames". The research seeks for an empirical test in order to identify what kinds of frames fall into the value-based type that are unchangeable and often unconscious in the context of 2010 Shanghai World Expo. With particular focus on the frame of "nationalism and patriotism", we are also interested in analyzing possible factors that lead to the formation of this kind of frames, which constitutes the second part of this paper.
III. Methodology
In addressing the questions above, this research will be conducted through content analysis based on the following indicators to compare the main "media frames" and "audience online frames" on the topic of 2010 Shanghai Expo, and therefore we could identify the value-based frames shared by both parts.
a) Formativeness: (First anchoring point)
How early was this frame first exposed to an individual? Did it form early in childhood or sometime later during growth?
b) Repetition: (Frequency)
How often does this frame emerge? Does it recur continually to the mind and keep with a high frequency of reappearance so as to reinforce the existing frame and have an accumulative effect?
c) Convergence: (Resonance)
Compared with the precious indicator of repetition, which deals with accumulative effect on content, the indicator of convergence focuses on whether different channels reinforce the frame in the same direction. For example, for all the people you connected to, your parents, teachers, peers, strangers and mass media all together, share a homogenous way to frame moral issues like Electra complex and Oedipal complex. Of particular relevance to the case of Shanghai Expo, it may be the case when framing "patriotism".
d) Self-distance:
This indicator is to measure the closeness of a frame from one "self": the position of ego at micro individual level, and the identity of an individual or a sense of belonging at macro/social level, etc. Content analysis is based on a random sample with around 300 pieces of articles selected through the method of constructed week and through the 6 months when World Expo took place from May 1st to Oct.31st, 2010. News coverage with key words of "World Expo", from three popular newspapers enjoying the largest circulation (Shanghai Times; Shanghai Morning News; Xin Min Evening News), were coded into 10 thematic frames. Online audience frames from three most popular and influential forums in Mainland China (Tianya, mop, china.com) will be coded following the same principles as media frames, yet a more qualitative discourse analysis would be involved.
IV. Possible Outcomes and Research Contributions:
Our construction of the central-peripheral frame system provides a logical structure in frame analysis, especially from the cognitive perspective. We are quite confident in that "value-based frames" could bring out significance influences and be quite different from "attitude-driven frames". The frames keep constant irrespective of medium (traditional or new media) and producer (journalists and grass-root audiences) would be both powerful in strength and in connectivity since it could largely influence other related frames. Applications could be extended to political communication, persuasion in general and especially in the field of health communication. To sum up, this research, in the first place, devotes to construct a "central-peripheral frame structure" by categorizing frames into two types: "attitude-driven" and "value-based". Secondly, based on this theoretical framework, analysis on the determinant variables concerning the formation of "value-based frames" in the context of 2010 Shanghai World Expo will bring further empirical contributions to the field of research on framing.
For many years, the powerful "framing theory" has enjoyed a high popularity in various areas: from news analysis to audience analysis, from propaganda strategies to advertising campaigns, from crisis management to decision making and so on. "Framing", in general, is a process that helps organize and direct the way audiences perceive and evaluate an issue through outlining a set of considerations (Van Gorp, 2007; Entman, 1993; Gamson, 1989). It is traditionally studied as an effort-demanding process, requiring journalists to construct a picture or to think of an angle for a piece of news. Striding into the digital age, news produced and discussed at grass-root level is not a novelty anymore. Effects of deliberated framing and professional constructing of news have been mediated by audience's reframing process. Especially for Internet users, the Internet offers new possibilities for them to participate actively in news events and social affairs. Without doubt, audience framing will play a more vital role with the expansion of new media use and the development of social network. But still, researchers tend to interpret framing as a deliberate process and focus on changeable frames dependent on producers' own predispositions. However, an interesting, significant, yet unexplored area of framing is the opposing situation that some frames will keep constant all the time, to different people, on a broad range of issues, and even across various types of medium. Contrary to the conventional frames, this kind of frames is much more effort saving or intuitional so to speak, and may carry longer-term influence without awareness. Further, these unconscious frames may reveal the latent structure behind the global "digital convergence". Taking these two types of frames (deliberate and situational frames vs. unconscious and consistent frames) into consideration, a "latent structure" behind frame system urges and investigation. The emergence of online forum and social network services provide us perfect sources to acquire audiences' perceptions. By comparing these online audience frames (as a reframing process) with media frames, we hope to articulate the commonly shared, unchangeable and even unconscious frames as well as to find out their forming causes and consequences in terms of media effects. Through this study, I will try to make this unconsciousness dazzling. Both theoretical construction and empirical examination will be involved in this study, hoping to demonstrate a complete picture of this alternative approach on framing theory.
II. Research Questions
I call for a return to Goffman's concept of "frame analysis" to investigate the basic cognitive structure in perceiving reality through an unconscious manner which could be applied to both traditional media framing and online audience reframing. By focusing on what kinds of frames have been remained instead of what have been changed, this research intends to articulate "frame processing" from a cognitive approach and detect the formation and consequences of the unconscious but deeply entrenched "frames in thought". This paper proposes a "central-peripheral frame system theory" derived from ELM and Milton Rokeach's "structure of human belief systems". Based on this theoretical framework, we clarified two types of frames: the "value-based frames" and the "attitude-driven frames". The research seeks for an empirical test in order to identify what kinds of frames fall into the value-based type that are unchangeable and often unconscious in the context of 2010 Shanghai World Expo. With particular focus on the frame of "nationalism and patriotism", we are also interested in analyzing possible factors that lead to the formation of this kind of frames, which constitutes the second part of this paper.
III. Methodology
In addressing the questions above, this research will be conducted through content analysis based on the following indicators to compare the main "media frames" and "audience online frames" on the topic of 2010 Shanghai Expo, and therefore we could identify the value-based frames shared by both parts.
a) Formativeness: (First anchoring point)
How early was this frame first exposed to an individual? Did it form early in childhood or sometime later during growth?
b) Repetition: (Frequency)
How often does this frame emerge? Does it recur continually to the mind and keep with a high frequency of reappearance so as to reinforce the existing frame and have an accumulative effect?
c) Convergence: (Resonance)
Compared with the precious indicator of repetition, which deals with accumulative effect on content, the indicator of convergence focuses on whether different channels reinforce the frame in the same direction. For example, for all the people you connected to, your parents, teachers, peers, strangers and mass media all together, share a homogenous way to frame moral issues like Electra complex and Oedipal complex. Of particular relevance to the case of Shanghai Expo, it may be the case when framing "patriotism".
d) Self-distance:
This indicator is to measure the closeness of a frame from one "self": the position of ego at micro individual level, and the identity of an individual or a sense of belonging at macro/social level, etc. Content analysis is based on a random sample with around 300 pieces of articles selected through the method of constructed week and through the 6 months when World Expo took place from May 1st to Oct.31st, 2010. News coverage with key words of "World Expo", from three popular newspapers enjoying the largest circulation (Shanghai Times; Shanghai Morning News; Xin Min Evening News), were coded into 10 thematic frames. Online audience frames from three most popular and influential forums in Mainland China (Tianya, mop, china.com) will be coded following the same principles as media frames, yet a more qualitative discourse analysis would be involved.
IV. Possible Outcomes and Research Contributions:
Our construction of the central-peripheral frame system provides a logical structure in frame analysis, especially from the cognitive perspective. We are quite confident in that "value-based frames" could bring out significance influences and be quite different from "attitude-driven frames". The frames keep constant irrespective of medium (traditional or new media) and producer (journalists and grass-root audiences) would be both powerful in strength and in connectivity since it could largely influence other related frames. Applications could be extended to political communication, persuasion in general and especially in the field of health communication. To sum up, this research, in the first place, devotes to construct a "central-peripheral frame structure" by categorizing frames into two types: "attitude-driven" and "value-based". Secondly, based on this theoretical framework, analysis on the determinant variables concerning the formation of "value-based frames" in the context of 2010 Shanghai World Expo will bring further empirical contributions to the field of research on framing.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 14 Jul 2011 |
| Event | International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference, IAMCR 2011: Cities, Creativity, Connectivity - Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey Duration: 13 Jul 2011 → 17 Jul 2011 https://iamcr.org/congress/istanbul-2011 (Link to conference website) https://iamcr.org/sites/default/files/Istanbul2011-programme.pdf (Link to conference website) |
Conference
| Conference | International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference, IAMCR 2011 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Turkey |
| City | Istanbul |
| Period | 13/07/11 → 17/07/11 |
| Internet address |
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