Framing as a Social Movement’s Transnational Strategy

Abstract

This paper focuses on framing as a social movement’s transnationalstrategy. Applying the cultural approach to framing analysis, it investigateshow the Gülen movement, as a social group with restricted access tonational gatekeepers, uses discourse to internationalise a domestic powerstruggle with a powerful opponent. Moving the struggle to theinternational arena presents a discursive opportunity that determineswhich ideas become visible and legitimate both internationally andnationally. The importance of such internationalization increases in times ofconflict and the media play a vital role in this process. The paper arguesthat the editors of the pro-Gülen movement foreign online platformsestablished after the movement was forced into exile following the failed2016 coup, use strategic framing to tailor their frames for the host contextand culture. That increases the resonance of their frames and the potentialof the discursive opportunity. The article confirms the previous findings thatmedia are a crucial resource for transnational social movements becausepolicymakers are sensitive to public opinion, which is shaped by mediaframes.