Has your news been framed?

In order to quickly and efficiently process large amounts of information and make sense of complex stories journalists use frames. News frames guide journalists in deciding which details of a story to select and emphasize and which to leave out or de-emphasize. Frames are usually implicit rather than explicit.

One of the most common frames is conflict. In the conflict frame reporters structure their stories around a conflict that is often portrayed as being inherent in the issue being discussed. Other standard frames for news stories include: the consensus frame which emphasizes general agreement; the reaction frame which features the reactions of one or more important people involved in the story; the wrongdoing exposed frame in which corruption or injustice is revealed; and the straight news account frame in which the reporter primarily asks the standard who, what, when, where and how questions.

While it may seem that stories lend themselves naturally to one or another frame it is worth imagining alternative frames which might have been used in the stories we read. For example, if the politicians in Washington all support going to war but a significant percentage of the general populace are ambivalent or opposed to such an action, a reporter could frame the article with a consensus frame, focusing on the agreement between Republicans and Democrats. Alternatively that reporter could give the story a conflict frame focusing on the difference of opinion between politicians and the citizens opposed to the war. The picture that emerges is likely to be quite different depending on the frame chosen.

Finally, it is worth noting that there are often frames within frames. For example, when the overall frame is conflict, an internal frame may be a multisided conflict or, alternatively, two-sided conflict.

Key Questions to keep in mind while reading the following example on Story Framing:

  • What is the frame used in this story?
  • Why do you think the frame was chosen?
  • Were there alternative frames which would have served equally well or better?
  • Many have argued that a genius of the American political system is that it tends to promote compromise and avoid the extremes of left and right. Do you view Mr. Bush's role in the affirmative action debate more positively when the story is framed with Mr. Bush taking a middle ground between promoters and opponents of affirmative action or when he is presented as an affirmative action opponent taking on its supporters?

Dallas Morning News -- 1/16/03
Bush says race-based school policy is flawed
Stand on landmark Michigan case may not please friends, foes
By DAVID JACKSON Washington Bureau
President Bush weighed in on a landmark Supreme Court case Wednesday, saying he supports racial diversity but opposes racial quotas, a middle-ground approach that may anger both sides in the debate over affirmative action.
"As we work to address the wrong of racial prejudice, we must not use means that create another wrong, and thus perpetuate our divisions," Mr. Bush said as his lawyers prepared a legal brief asking the high court to declare the University of Michigan's affirmative action admissions policies unconstitutional. Supporters of Michigan said Mr. Bush's proposal that colleges use race-neutral means to promote racial diversity is unrealistic and would deny opportunities to black and Hispanic students.
Conservatives, meanwhile, criticized the president for declining to call for an end to any use of race in the admissions process.
During his seven-minute speech, Mr. Bush said: "I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education. But the method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this important goal is fundamentally flawed."
Michigan used a point system to assess applicants. Mr. Bush protested that the school awarded 20 points to black, Hispanic and American Indian students, noting that the system gave only 12 points for perfect SAT scores. The program also set targets for minority admissions to the university's law school, passing over white applicants in the process, he said.
"At their core," Mr. Bush said, "the Michigan policies amount to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes prospective students based solely on their race."
Supporters of the Michigan plan disputed that, calling the system a good-faith effort to attract a broad range of students. They said the school also awarded points for extracurricular activities as well as to applicants with financial disadvantages, a group that would include poor white students. . . . / Ann Arbor News -- 1/16/03
Bush attacks UM policy
By Liz Cobbs
President Bush’s surprise televised speech opposing University of Michigan admissions policies quickly made Ann Arbor the buzz of the nation Wednesday, jump-starting another round of debate and yet another chapter in the five-year old saga that will likely end this summer at the U.S. Supreme Court.
University President Mary Sue Coleman said Bush misunderstands the policies. An attorney representing the students who sued the university said the speech reinforces public opinion that already exists against the U-M polices....
"It is unfortunate that the president misunderstands how are admissions process works," Coleman said. . . . "It is a complex process that takes many factors into account and considers the entire background on each student applicant just as the president urged."
Coleman took issue with Bush's use of the term "quota" to describe the U-M admissions process. . . .
"Academic qualifications are the overwhelming consideration for admission to both programs," she said. . . .
"Whatever you think about diversity, Michigan's policy is unconstitutional," Levey said. [Curt Levey is the director of legal and public affairs for the Center for Individual Rights the law firm which brought the anti-affirmative action suit.]
Both the Bush administration and CIR were among the parties filing briefs today that oppose U-M's admissions policy.
Bush's announcement prompted spirited debates among students in the U-M law school's cafeteria Wednesday night.
Mark Griffin, a black law student from Maryland, said more needs to be done to create equal opportunities for all students, especially at public high schools, before affirmative action can be eliminated. “Affirmative action is the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound,” Griffin said. “But right not is the best thing we have available.”
Other students argued that although inequities exist, giving applicants a set amount of points for skin color is not the answer.
Israeli-American Yossi Cohen of Staten Island, N.Y., said he is particularly bothered by the fact that race is weighted more heavily than Scholastic Aptitude Test scores in undergraduate admissions. “To me, a perfect SAT says a lot,” he said.
Story Framing Analysis:
The frames news organizations use are not fixed. They can shift or change over time. The frame many news organizations used in their coverage of charges of police brutality changed after the videotaped beating of Rodney King was televised across the nation. Similarly the frame used to view protestors against the war in Vietnam changed as the war dragged on and the opposition to it grew. The Bakke decision, which is the precedent under review in the Supreme Court had a different frame when it was decided than it does today.
The task of the consumer of news is to identify the frame being used in a particular story and then asking if the frame fits. A frame, well used, can help us understand complex events and issues. Conversely a poorly chosen frame can distort and misrepresent those events and issues.