Speaking of Globalization

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of global frames as a means of measuring the degree to which individuals reference transnationalism in their interpretations of various events. Over the past few decades, institutional actors within world society have incorporated a language of globality into the public discourse, and this article examines whether this trend has become visible at the micro-level. The utility of this concept is illustrated using coded newspaper editorials from Canada and the United States in 2001 and 2003. Nearly one-fifth of the sampled editorials used a global frame, meaning that individuals do adopt the rhetoric established in the public sphere. Editorials that discussed either the US-Iraq Conflict or events that involved multiple countries were significantly more likely to use a global frame. In addition, US editorials used global frames at a higher rate than Canadian editorials. Thus, global framing is patterned by both shifts in public discourse and the persistent relevance of national borders.