Strategic Framing Research Articles

Topic modelling as a method for framing analysis of news coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022–2023

This study critically analyses the representation of the Russia-Ukraine war in Western (the Euronews) and Eastern (the Kyiv Post) media discourses. It examines how media organisations shape narratives through strategic framing. Employing the Natural Language Processing technique – Topic Modelling – with a generative probabilistic model LDA and a transformer-based language model BERT, the study reveals generic frames elaborated by more specific extensions, shedding light on media portrayal of economy, public opinion, security & defence, external regulations, policy evaluation, and health & safety sectors. Through Named Entity Recognition with roBERTa, Sentiment Analysis with distilBERT, and Corpus Linguistics methods with LancsBox X, interpretation of these overarching frames provides a comprehensive analysis of the nuances in narratives, societal perceptions and policy decisions amidst the ongoing war.

Social media, destination framing and its impact on culinary heritage tourism from the traveller's perspective

The study explores how the framing of culinary heritage destinations influences travellers' perceptions, with a particular focus on social media platforms. Qualitative research was conducted through in-depth, face-to-face, and semi-structured interviews with twelve participants in Malaysia with active social media accounts. The research findings highlighted the significant role of social media and emphasised the importance of utilising effective platforms and strategic framing to promote culinary heritage destinations and traditional foods. The study further suggests that framing culinary heritage destinations within a social media context can influence travellers to visit these destinations for their culinary offerings.

When Duality Fails: Addressing the Liability of Hybridity in a Field Dominated by Non‐profit Values

AbstractScholars have explored how hybrid organizations balance conflicting values internally, but less attention has been given to how they address critiques from external stakeholders who regard the combination of social and economic goals as illegitimate. Drawing from a study of influential stakeholders challenging the dual practices of a hybrid organization fighting child malnutrition, we examine how a hybrid organization can address what we call the ‘liability of hybridity’. We show how a hybrid organization can overcome this liability by combining ‘wedging’ and ‘alignment’ strategies through strategic framing, prompting influential stakeholders to revise their negative legitimacy assessments. Our study contributes to research on hybrid organizations and their capacity to address societal grand challenges, expands research on framing strategies by focusing on framing microprocesses (in particular, the ‘modularity’ of framing), and advances our understanding of how legitimacy assessments are made and revised.

Reassessing ayahuasca regulation in Brazil: strategic framing and cumulative gains

Background In the early twentieth century, ayahuasca gained popularity in northern Brazil, causing political tension due to moral hostility. However, over the course of the century, despite the proscription of DMT and the intensification of the ‘War on Drugs’, three phases of cumulative political gains eventually led to the full regulation of ayahuasca, in 2010. How was this achieved? Methods This paper provides a comprehensive reassessment of the existing literature on ayahuasca in Brazil, utilizing social movement theory. Emphasis is placed on framing methods, or how movements strategically present their aims to particular audiences, in order to effect political change. Results First, ayahuasca churches constructed a religious frame that emphasized their Christian pedigree. Second, when harassment intensified, ayahuasca was reframed as a charitable endeavour. Finally, in the transition to democracy, the religions added a scientific frame, collaborating with the state to review scientific evidence and establish policy parameters for regulation. Conclusion Framing ayahuasca as Christian and focusing on charity and science were neither straightforward nor unproblematic, but did allow ayahuasca groups to successfully avoid persecution, establish relationships with powerful actors, and eventually achieve full regulation. This case study provides unique insights into the role of social movements in successful drug policy reform, especially how movements can strategically adapt to and influence prevailing moral codes, resulting in concrete political victories.

Towards a climate of hope: learning in response to frames at an innovative museum exhibit

As trusted public institutions, museums could offer crucial opportunities for climate learning. Yet, empirical research on effective approaches is limited. One potential pathway is through strategic framing, given that much research in climate communication suggests the value of specific frames. We developed an innovative climate exhibit, A Climate of Hope (ACOH), guided by five strategic frames: hope, gain, local, community, and playful. To investigate visitor learning at a prototype of ACOH, we collected data from 31 groups as they interacted with a prototype of ACOH while wearing audio recorders. Integrating theories of knowledge and discourse, we investigated learners’ use of resources at ACOH through qualitative discourse analysis and mixed-methods analysis. We found that learners brought a diverse array of resources, some of which were related to incoming views of climate change. We interpret our results as speaking to the potential of framing climate messages through a gain frame. We provide implications for educational practice around climate change in informal spaces.

Disinformation and strategic frames: Introducing the concept of a strategic epistemology towards media

Efforts to raise awareness about foreign disinformation might accidentally increase distrust towards legitimate media. We argue that state discourse on disinformation is comparable to strategic framing in journalists’ coverage of political events, and that it might imbue audiences with cynicism. Furthermore, in contrast to an experimental paradigm that depicts disinformation audiences as passive, we suggest that news consumers actively appropriate and produce content themselves. Conceptualising media content as ‘strategic’ rather than sincere might influence audiences to share and produce media content strategically. This Machiavellian tendency leads to similar effects on bias as motivated reasoning. Most accounts of motivated reasoning assume that limits of psychological processing are the reasons for biased judgements of what is true and fake, however, we argue that biases can also be due to culturally acquired second-order beliefs about knowledge. To explain this, we build on ideas about ‘folk epistemology’ and propose the term ‘strategic epistemology towards media’. Resistance-building efforts against disinformation risk promoting such a strategic epistemology towards media and this can have harmful effects on democratic dialogue. To avoid this, educational interventions should be premised on social epistemology rather than experimental psychology.

Sustainability Strategic Framing in Corporate Communication: Contextual Semantics of Twitter in the Energy Sector

Sustainability has become the prevailing paradigm, a model of conduct, and a central theme in social and media discourses within the past decade. However, it is still a marginal development concept in the interdisciplinary research field dealing with sustainability communication, especially with meaning-making processes in relevant communicative, for example, in corporate and industry contexts. This paper focuses on how the idea of sustainability is framed, anchored, and disseminated in energy companies' communication via social media channels and how the linguistic methods used by energy corporations concerning sustainability co -create theirsymbolic value. Specifically, this study has aimed to understand how the sustainability topic was discussed in the Twitter sphere of the most prominent energy companies in 2020. This study makes a three -fold contribution to sustainable research and practice. First, the study identifies the framing structure of sustainability content in social media communication in the energy sector. Secondly, the study identifies social media data as a viable source of sustainability conceptualization and its understanding through communication. Finally, this study illustrates how text mining and natural language processing (NLP) can be used as a research method for managing big text data and a tool for discovering latent communication structures. Sustainability is present and visible in the communication of the energy industry identified by (1) the semantic construction of phrases in communication that show a future, green, and clean orientation, but it is also strongly declarative, referring to what will be and can be done, and with positive emotions related to the communicated messages; and (2) decoupling from climate change and thus avoiding the industry's responsibility for the impact of global warming but promising clean, sustainable energy transformation and to avoid negative emotional connotation. However, one gets the impression that it takes on the character of a rhetorical art form related to the concept of decorum. In this view, the idea of sustainability is interpreted and shaped through the needs of the industry and as a rhetorical tool in building a positive narrative about companies and is used to gain legitimacy.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT OF INTERVIEWING: HOW TO BUILD EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH THE INTERVIEWEE, USE PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES TO OBTAIN SINCERE AND TRUTHFUL INFORMATION

This article examines the psychological dimensions of successful interviewing, emphasizing the critical role of establishing rapport, employing strategic questioning techniques, and navigating potential resistance to elicit genuine and truthful information. We argue that beyond the mere exchange of questions and answers, effective interviewing requires understanding the nuanced dynamics of human interaction. The article explores how fostering trust through active listening, empathy, and mirroring can create an environment conducive to open communication. We then delve into the power of open-ended questions, strategic framing, and nonverbal cues in eliciting detailed and insightful responses.

Stories that will make you blush? Erotic audio fiction on the verge between privacy and publicness

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the rapidly growing Swedish market of app-based audio erotic fiction through an analysis of two significant apps and publishers: Blanche Stories and Ava Stories. We explore audio erotica apps as devices of both literature, pleasure and intimate sonic connectivity. First, we discuss the specific affordances of the born-audio format, its flexible and mobile forms of listening and the consequences of this flexibility for audio erotica. Secondly, we move in on the content of these apps by taking a closer look at specific forms of erotization of books and literature present both in paratextual elements surrounding the stories, and in the stories themselves. Thirdly, we shift to a discussion of content regulation, marketing strategies and strategic framing of audio erotica apps as digital and sonic devices of pleasure. These apps and their content may be considered “safe” in a number of ways: They are framed as healthy and wholesome from a particular ethical, feminist standpoint by emphasising consent and disassociating with porn. They create intimate and, in a sense, private and safe spaces of listening. But they also carry interesting, queer potentials for mobile forms of sexuality and for public (or semi-public) sonic erotic experiences.

Integrating Framing Approaches as a Tool for Managing Complex Transitioning to Renewable Energy (TRE) Projects: The Yatir Wind Farm Case Study

Transitioning to renewable energy is an urgent global goal. Wind energy is a promising renewable source with contentious obstacles. Using the Yatir Wind Farm project in Israel as a case study, we explore the potential of framing in identifying and mitigating obstacles in a wind farm project. The cognitive and strategic frames employed by stakeholders were elicited through 18 semi-structured interviews and more than 100 documents. This analysis highlights three conflicting issues: potential or perceived harm to neighboring residents, protecting birds and bats, and adapting to changing regulations throughout the process. Regarding residents’ opposition to feared harm from the project, initial cautious curiosity was followed by distrust and deep disappointment due to a lack of transparency and a sense of abandonment facing perceived existential threats to their health and homes. This led residents to conduct legal battles, which resulted in their claims being rejected. It also led to the breakdown of relationships among neighbors opposing and promoting the wind farms. In the case of bird and bat protection, stakeholders initially framed concerns emotionally until the dialogue shifted to scientific discourse, resulting in the successful refinement of mutually agreed upon regulatory guidelines. The structural appeal mechanisms effectively addressed evolving regulations, overcoming the lack of mutual understanding and resulting in the adoption of the majority of the new regulatory requirements. The analysis underscores the importance of understanding stakeholders’ frames for effectively working through the complex and transdisciplinary nature of sustainability transitions and achieving successful outcomes. It also reveals the need for formal mechanisms to validate stakeholder needs and integrate them into decision-making processes. Recommendations include early and meaningful public involvement, process improvement for stakeholder engagement, and enhanced transparency in decision-making processes.

The European Union's governance of teachers and the evolution of a bridging issue field since the mid-2000s.

Concerned with European Union (EU) governance of teachers since the mid-2000s, this paper makes an empirical as well as theoretical contribution to education policy studies in the context of EU governance. Drawing on neo-institutional field theory and an empirical material of policy documents and interviews, the paper analyses the consolidation and evolution of a field at the EU level that is focused on the governance of the teaching profession. We argue that this field constitutes a bridging issue field, spanning several policy domains, including education, employment and economy, and characterised by non-linear and relatively slow change. We demonstrate how the field since the mid-2000s has become elaborated via the strategic framing of teacher skills and careers as policy issues, the mobilisation of actors and networks, and an expanding institutional infrastructure of mechanisms and policy instruments. Theoretically, the paper advances the debate on EU governance by highlighting the epistemic gains of neo-institutional field theory in making sense of soft governance contexts and their trajectories as an outcome of the interplay between issue framings, different types of actors, and institutional infrastructure.

Tales and theories as levers of expert influence: A case study of the Norwegian Oil Fund

Abstract The power of economists in policymaking is widely recognized by both scholars and political actors. While the literature on expert influence has primarily focused on the intellectual features of expert arguments, we argue that economists’ strategic use of framing and normative reasoning wields more influence in policymaking than is acknowledged by current scholarship. Through a comprehensive investigation into the institutionalization of the Norwegian Oil Fund and its associated fiscal regime, drawing on 26 elite interviews with key political and technocratic actors, we unveil the considerable influence of state economists in shaping the policy for managing petroleum wealth. These economists not only played a crucial role in legitimizing and lending credibility to the new policy but also employed strategic framing as a reinforcing mechanism to sustain the policy regime, illustrating the essential role of economists as storytellers. Hence, we suggest including strategic framing as a conceptual element within the theoretical framework of expert influence.

Justifying a Privacy Guardian in Discourse and Behaviour: The People’s Republic of China’s Strategic Framing in Data Governance

ABSTRACT The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) approach to data governance, centred on data sovereignty, is much debated in academic literature. However, it remains unclear how the PRC’s different state actors justify this approach. Based on an analysis of the discourse and behaviour of the PRC’s state actors through strategic framing theory, their role as a privacy guardian can arguably be described as strategically constructed. The Chinese government and legislative bodies have tailored their communications to present themselves as champions of individual privacy, aiming to secure support for state policies. This strategic framing encompasses four mechanisms: the reframing of privacy threats through political narratives; legal ambiguities; selective framing; and the implementation of censorship to influence public discourse. An examination of how the Chinese government responded differently to data breaches in the cases of Didi and the Shanghai National Police Database leak highlights the Chinese government’s efforts in maintaining framing consistency to construct itself as a guardian, rather than a violator, of individual privacy.

Planetary health values and their implications for sustainability governance: Case study in the City of Blue Mountains, Australia

Planetary health asserts that human health is contingent on the health of ecosystems. While the field has grown significantly since 2015, no known research has tested the expediency of planetary health as an applied values framework in local sustainability governance. This article seeks to address this gap by answering: how useful is planetary health for understanding the way citizens value nature and how nature shapes their health and wellbeing? What are the implications for using planetary health as a sustainability governance framing? Blue Mountains City Council is arguably the first local government globally to adopt a planetary health approach to its strategic framing of sustainability. This makes the Blue Mountains, Australia, an internationally relevant case study for contributing original knowledge about the usefulness of planetary health for sustainability governance. Through this case study, I undertook a face-to-face survey (n = 85) in March and April 2022 with Blue Mountains residents on their values associated with planetary health. I used the IPBES Assessment for Diverse Values of Nature as the basis for thematic analysis of the survey data. The article presents a first outline of residents’ planetary health values. Planetary health was found to be an effective means of understanding diverse nature-health values. Local governments can consider using planetary health in its strategic planning, outcomes monitoring and financial reporting. Future research can consider how planetary health values are prioritised in respect to other values framings and improve knowledge of planetary health by understanding of how people with diverse life experiences value nature-health relationships.

A Qualitative Exploratory Study of the Political Commitment for Nutrition Programming: A Case Study of Anambra and Kebbi States of Nigeria.

In Nigeria, varying levels of malnutrition across states present a critical challenge to public health, demanding tailored policy responses. This paper delves into the specific issues and dynamics influencing nutrition programs in the country. Advocating for nutrition-sensitive actions requires analyzing context-specific political commitment. This article presents a case study on two Nigerian states with varying malnutrition profiles to explore the political economy of nutrition. The study used stakeholder analysis, in-depth interviews, and semi-structured interviews through workshops, incorporating the Political Commitment Rapid Assessment Tool. The objective was to measure political commitment, the window of opportunity for action, and stakeholder analysis. The results showed that despite having a significant child malnutrition problem, Kebbi State received a high political commitment to nutrition, with proportions ranging from 0.67 to 1 in each of the six domains measured. On the other hand, Anambra State, where malnutrition was less severe, had varying commitment levels. Institutional commitment was marginally high (0.67), expressed commitment was high (0.71), and budgetary commitment was lower at 0.33. Kebbi had better support for programs dependent on foreign donors than Anambra. Both states need to use media to increase awareness about nutrition issues. When the nutrition situation is severe, foreign donors' influence grows. In conclusion, there are opportunities for strategic framing and advocacy of the nutrition profile of the states. Local state media can be effective, and institutional coordination committees that include various sectors already facilitate commitment to nutrition actions. However, individual, uncoordinated sectoral action can counterbalance the benefits of these committees. Further possibilities to generate political commitment for nutrition in the states are available. This study not only offers insights into the effectiveness of political strategies in addressing malnutrition but also lays the groundwork for future research and provides actionable recommendations for government policymaking.

The Strategic Framing of Hairpin Turn: How Incumbent Locomotive Firms Influence the Electric Scooter Industry Policy Making

The Strategic Framing of Hairpin Turn: How Incumbent Locomotive Firms Influence the Electric Scooter Industry Policy Making

VENI, VIDI, VICI GENDER INEQUALITY IN SPORT IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA – DID WOMEN REALLY WIN THIS GAME?

Even though there are no international or national documents that would allow or encourage unjustified differences in treatment between women and men, the fact is that some areas of life are still seen as belonging to men. Sports are, certainly, at the top of that ladder. It is considered a predominantly male field, shaped according to men and seen through the eyes of men. However, with the development of human rights and the mechanism for their protection, the awareness of the equality of women and men in sports has increased. The Republic of Serbia made a set of legal rules regarding: (1) discrimination in general; (2) sports; and, finally, (3) discrimination in sports. This paper aims to present and analyse the normative and strategic frame of the protection against discrimination in sports, to examine the current case law in front of the relevant institutions, and to point out the latest tendencies in the field of gender equality and sports.

“Strategic framing” as a modern marketing tool for book publishing management

Aim. To study the book market as one of the most specific branch markets where scaling is impossible and the only way to compete is to escape from it, and on the basis of the analysis to give an assessment of the competitive environment of independent bookstores in St. Petersburg.Objectives. To define the methodology of competitive environment analysis; to characterize the market of independent bookstores in St. Petersburg; to analyze the competitive environment of the most significant independent bookstores.Methods. The authors used general scientific methods: deduction, analysis and synthesis, logical analysis, methods of marketing research.Results. The strategic framing provides an opportunity to most fully assess the potential not only of a particular enterprise, but also of the industry as a whole. It allows you to assess the similarity and difference of your strategy in comparison with the strategies of competitors. All competitive niches are used by stores to a greater or lesser extent, which means that a new point of sale, in case of entering such a market, should offer innovation of value, and at least at the level of overlap with the practices of other industries.Conclusions. We have analyzed a segment of the book market - the market of independent bookstores. The stores were divided into competing groups, and their competitive advantages were evaluated using the so-called strategic framework method, which allowed us to determine that the modern market segment has exhausted the potential of the main value innovations proposed at the initial formation. On the one hand, this means increased competition and the need for old players to offer better service, on the other hand - the need for new players to create new values for the consumer.

Achieving stakeholder alignment in digital transformation: A frame transformation perspective

Digital transformation (DT) offers organizations the opportunity for operational and strategic innovation, leading to increased efficiencies and transformative changes. However, successfully implementing DT initiatives requires collaboration among diverse stakeholders with varying perspectives, motivations, and capabilities. This study explores how stakeholders frame the DT process to achieve alignment and implement DT initiatives. Drawing upon the concepts of frames and frame alignment mechanisms, the study examines how stakeholders strategically influence each other’s interpretations through frame alignment mechanisms. A case study of a council-wide DT initiative in an Australian city council was conducted to analyze stakeholders' strategic alignment efforts. The findings reveal differing interpretations of the DT process among stakeholders and the strategic efforts to align the various interpretations through a frame transformation of planning, implementation, and communication frames. Based on the findings, a process model for achieving alignment in DT initiatives is proposed, capturing the dynamic nature of frames and their interactions. This study contributes to the understanding of stakeholder dynamics and strategic framing in the context of DT initiatives.

Cultural expertise in Sami land rights litigation: Epistemic strategies in the Girjas and Fosen cases

How do parties mobilise cultural expertise in Indigenous rights litigation in Scandinavia? Recently, Sami groups have litigated to claim Indigenous rights to land and natural resources, winning some remarkable victories in the Supreme Courts of Norway and Sweden. In this paper, we draw on socio-legal mobilisation theory to analyse the epistemic strategies of Sami litigants and their adversaries in two recent landmark Supreme Court cases on Indigenous rights to usage of land: the 2020 Girjas case in Sweden and the 2021 Fosen case in Norway. Conceptualising cultural expertise as a strategic framing contest, we analyse how the parties struggled over the epistemic basis of the respective case by legitimating their claims to cultural knowledge, drawing on academic research, and discrediting their opponents’ epistemic claims. Our findings suggest that in both cases, Sami claimants successfully established an epistemic basis where their traditional, experiential knowledge combined with independent academic expertise effectively challenged the knowledge claims of their adversaries. Yet, both cases also demonstrate how the linkage between Sami Indigeneity and reindeer husbandry in the national law of both countries excludes non-reindeer herding Sami persons from the Indigenous rights affirmed by the courts.