Comparative Framing: Media Strategy in Public Communication Policy

Abstract

Framing is one of the most misunderstood concepts in political communication studies. It roots from epistemological problems, framing appropriately as a ”method” to framing’s concept itself. Framing is the process of construction and negotiation of public policy issues influenced by discourse contestation, where one view on a particular issue will be offered, negotiated, and then accepted or rejected as a dominant discourse that becomes the background of a policy. This study employed comparative framing to investigate the dimension of media framing as a media strategy. We examined how media strategies are applied to frame the same issue. This research concluded that at the level of event-driven news, the media has a similar frame strategy. Furthermore, contrast frames occur in micro-issues due to the influence of media characteristics, historical-ideological factors, and media organizational structures.
 Keywords: framing, governance, political communication, policy