Abstract
The article seeks to demonstrate the contribution that corpus linguistic software can make in news frame analysis and how it can help address some of the methodological challenges in the extraction of news frames. With the employment of corpus linguistic software WordSmith, the study conducts an inductive frame analysis of the UK press coverage of the Greek financial crisis, in which it combines principles of qualitative and quantitative analytical approaches. The findings demonstrate that, by integrating a statistical measuring mechanism in a qualitative analytical approach, corpus linguistic techniques can offer a systematic connection of stylistic and ideological features of news content and a more reliable identification of the loci for frames. Such techniques can also allow a better approximation of the unconscious level of frame construction. This can lead to a more efficient identification of frames that exhibit deeper cultural values and are more likely to shape the receivers’ interpretations.
Highlights
Since the early 1990s there has been a steady growth in the use of frame analysis in research about news and journalism, in an effort to offer insight into the forces that shape media interpretations of reality and their potential influence on audiences
The roots of framing as a theory are situated in the field of sociology, where the term has been in use since the mid-1950s (Bateson, 1955). It is this sociological approach to framing that has underlay the study of news frames so far, with frames being examined as social constructs and outcomes of journalistic norms or organizational constraints, as well as sponsored by social and political actors
The contribution of corpus linguistic techniques With the use of software developed for corpus-assisted discourse studies such as Wordmith (Scott, 2011-- used in this study) or Antconc (Anthony, 2005) for example, we aim to develop a methodological tool that reconciles the gap between the interpretative and the attribute-based approaches to frame identification
Summary
Since the early 1990s there has been a steady growth in the use of frame analysis in research about news and journalism, in an effort to offer insight into the forces that shape media interpretations of reality and their potential influence on audiences. The roots of framing as a theory are situated in the field of sociology, where the term has been in use since the mid-1950s (Bateson, 1955) It is this sociological approach to framing that has underlay the study of news frames so far, with frames being examined as social constructs and outcomes of journalistic norms or organizational constraints, as well as sponsored by social and political actors. Goffman defines frames as ‘schemata of interpretation’ that enable individuals to understand certain events and ‘to locate, perceive, identify and label’ occurrences. He calls these schemata primary frameworks because ‘they turn what should be a meaningless aspect of a scene into something meaningful’ These attempts have opened up an ongoing debate regarding notions of ‘frame’ and the methodological tensions created by its operationalization
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