Strategic Framing Research Articles

Coercive metaphors in news headlines: a cognitive-pragmatic approach

This article explores the application of metaphors in news headlines with a view to interrogating their potential for coercion. Coercion in news discourse is understood as a strategic deployment of pragma-linguistic devices, including metaphors, to foreground the representations of socio-political reality that are compatible with the interests of the news outlet rather than those that inform public debate. It is argued that coercion can be exposed through systematic discourse analysis. Methodologically, the study aims to integrate the cognitive and pragmatic approaches to metaphor in regarding it as both a conceptual building block of news representations and a strategic framing device in news discourse. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of a sample of metaphors excerpted from a corpus of 400 most-read headlines from one of the most visited English-language newspaper sites The Daily Mail is conducted to illustrate such coercive applications of metaphor as simplification, imaging, animalization, confronta tion, (de)legitimization, emotionalization, and dramatization. In the course of the analysis it is demonstrated how certain ideologically-biased representations can be coerced through figurative language.

Negative externalities of food production: discourses on the contested Norwegian aquaculture industry

The concern of this article is the language and ontology of negative externalities. Four discourses on the financially successful industry of salmon farming in Norway are critically analyzed and deconstructed. The discourses are: "high turnover discourse", "technology optimism discourse", "first nature discourse" and "traditionalist discourse". Groups defending various discourses differ in their interpretations of a) human/nature relations i.e. either ecocentric, anthropocentric or biocentric, and b) in their respective approach to either a transformative, adaptive or reactive logic. By linking interpretations, concepts and logic inherent to these discourses, it is possible to make conclusions on their degree of coherency. The leading discourses are maintained in language through strategic framing and overdetermination. These linguistic mechanisms are revealed in the discursive application of the concepts of sustainability and wild fish. Rather than to surrender to relativism, the article recommends integration of realism and deconstruction.Key words: Atlantic salmon farming, food production, critical discourse analysis, negative externalities, soft constructionism, parsimony, political ecology, sustainability.

Deliberation and Mass Media Communication in Election Campaigns

Abstract Theories of deliberative democracy are demanding and set high standards for participants. While these standards are difficult enough to fulfill in a small scale setting, such as a citizen jury, this article will consider what role (if any) the media might play in making elections more deliberative. There are a number of challenges in attempting to apply standards of deliberation to the media coverage of elections. First are the problems of scale. National elections seek to maximize participation and, even with high quality media coverage, not every voter can be expected to act like an ideal deliberator. Secondly, elections tend to be viewed as aggregative processes rather than sites for deliberation. Election coverage will also tend to focus on strategic frames. Thirdly, the mass media are subject to constraints of their own, such as time and the need to attract a large audience. Consequently, there seems to be little realistic prospect of getting the media to meet the full standards of deliberat...

Introducing “Impact Validity”

This article introduces and explores the concept impact validity, which is conceptualized as the extent to which research has the potential to play a role in social and political change or is useful as a tool for advocacy or activism. Including impact validity in the design of a research project means that, in addition to considering traditional criteria for determining the methodological rigor of research, it is also critical to consider the many related decisions that researchers make when working toward social change. In this article, the theory and methodology of impact validity and the assumptions that position impact validity as both a valid scientific approach, and a useful tool for promoting a more engaged social science, are considered. A “how to” guide is also provided that offers three guiding principles for enhancing impact validity: the strategic choice of research question, having explicit and realistic strategies for using research, and the strategic framing, communicating, and disseminating of findings.

Mumbai Indians: a case on social media marketing

Subject area The courses prominent in this context are: social media marketing, integrated marketing communication, internet marketing. For the students of internet marketing, the case may be focussed on understanding the dynamics of social media marketing. Study level/applicability The case shall be administered among students pursuing their post graduate degree in management. Case overview The case reflects the importance of social media marketing and various successful campaign activities led by Mumbai Indians. It highlights how companies can connect with audience vide social media that provides instant feedback and direct connection with the target audience. The strategic frame that can be used to organize the campaign has been suggested by the authors in teaching notes, besides evolving the metrics to evaluate the success/effectiveness of such campaigns. The case evaluated social media campaigns and identified best-suited channel. Expected learning outcomes The case may be focused on understanding the dynamics of social media marketing. Management students would have a huge learning in terms of how social media campaigns are developed and effectiveness of social media campaigns. The case explains the metrics to evaluate the success/effectiveness of such campaigns. The case evaluated social media campaigns and identified best-suited channel which would be a learning for student studying online marketing. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN DUTCH DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION: THE DIALECTICS OF PROGRESS

Abstract: This paper applies a political process approach to analyze existing evaluations of gender mainstreaming (GM) efforts by (non) governmental agencies in Dutch development cooperation. This analytical framework looks both into structural elements (in terms of political/organization opportunities) and agency (in terms of mobilizing actor constellations and strategic framing) to explain how and why, despite the wide and rapid adoption of GM policies and practices, it has been a trajectory of progress and setbacks. Looking at mainstreaming as a political process reveals how politics affects every level, phase and space involved in the mainstreaming process and as such, makes GM an ongoing struggle. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

From Theory to Practice: How Mass Audubon Is Incorporating Strategic Framing about Climate Change

Mass Audubon recognized that climate change was significantly impacting bird species distribution and seasonality. Unsure of how and when to engage visitors to their network of wildlife sanctuaries on the topic of climate change, its educators turned to the National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpreters' Study Circle (NNOCCI). Through participation in NNOCCI, with its focus on strategic framing, staff increased their confidence and abilities to communicate with their visitors about climate change and its impact on the varied habitats and wildlife in Mass Audubon's care. Educators from across the state customized their climate change programming for each unique site, including the creation of new program models that empowered visitors to collaborate with site staff to take individual and community-based action related to climate change adaptation.

Turning Visitors into Citizens: Using Social Science for Civic Engagement in Informal Science Education Centers

AbstractHow can museums and other informal learning institutions cultivate greater civic engagement among the visiting public around important social issues? This case study of the National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpreters' (NNOCCI) professional learning community illustrates how insights from the social sciences can be productively integrated into existing museum interpretation practice. NNOCCI partnered with social scientists at the FrameWorks Institute to strengthen interpreters' capacity to improve museum climate literacy efforts through Strategic Frame Analysis™, an approach to communications research and practice that identifies how the public's deeply held worldviews impact civic participation. Key insights from FrameWorks' original research on the topics of climate change and oceans formed the content of training curriculum. Based on feedback from pilot participants, an interactive pedagogy suited to the museum education context was developed and expanded to reach 150 informal scie...

Turning Visitors into Citizens: Using Social Science for Civic Engagement in Informal Science Education Centers

How can museums and other informal learning institutions cultivate greater civic engagement among the visiting public around important social issues? This case study of the National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpreters' (NNOCCI) professional learning community illustrates how insights from the social sciences can be productively integrated into existing museum interpretation practice. NNOCCI partnered with social scientists at the FrameWorks Institute to strengthen interpreters' capacity to improve museum climate literacy efforts through Strategic Frame Analysis™, an approach to communications research and practice that identifies how the public's deeply held worldviews impact civic participation. Key insights from FrameWorks' original research on the topics of climate change and oceans formed the content of training curriculum. Based on feedback from pilot participants, an interactive pedagogy suited to the museum education context was developed and expanded to reach 150 informal science education institutions through 2015.

From Theory to Practice: How Mass Audubon Is Incorporating Strategic Framing about Climate Change

From Theory to Practice: How Mass Audubon Is Incorporating Strategic Framing about Climate Change

Strategic Framing of Climate Change by Industry Actors: A Meta-analysis

This study uses framing theory to analyze 38 studies on industry actors' climate change communication between 1990 and 2010. It identifies three consecutive phases, each characterized by one dominant master frame: in the early and mid-1990s the US fossil fuel and coal industry pushed the frame of scientific uncertainty. With the rundown to the Kyoto negotiations in 1997, the strategy shifted toward the socioeconomic consequences of mandatory emission reductions, particularly in the USA and Australia. At the same time, European industry actors started to promote industrial leadership in a climate protection, which today dominates across all the world regions. The study discusses potential triggers for the regional differences as well as the implications for further research.

Rhetorical Framing in Corporate Press Releases: The Case of British Petroleum and the Gulf Oil Spill

This article examines how British Petroleum (BP) used conventional features of the press release genre to characterize its involvement in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Findings suggest that press releases served two related functions: individually, they highlighted the company's public attempts to stabilize a dynamic situation and take responsibility for seemingly positive developments in the coastal region; and together, they contribute to an evolving narrative through which BP attempted to craft its image as an innovative corporation, conscientious environmental agent, and generous benefactor to those affected by the spill. The author argues that the features of the press release genre contribute to strategic rhetorical framing and thus offer important insights into the ways in which organizations position themselves in relation to environmental crises.

Politicizing biology: Social movements, parties, and the case of homosexuality

We offer an expanded version of attribution theory that incorporates macro- and micro-elements. We then use this theory on a test case and propose an explanation of how individual beliefs about the origins of homosexuality have changed over time and become polarized along partisan lines. We argue that attributions on the origins of homosexuality have been shaped over time by the emergence of a macro-level debate about gay civil rights policy, the related macro-level partisan polarization on gay rights policies, and the strategic framing efforts of in-groups within the parties. We employ aggregate and individual level survey data, descriptive analysis, and content analysis and find support for a theory of attribution that accounts for macro-level factors when explaining individual-level attitudes. We conclude that policy debates can fundamentally shift as attributions become partisan or otherwise politicized.

Interactions of News Frames and Incivility in the Political Blogosphere: Examining Perceptual Outcomes

The anonymity and flexibility of the online world allows the free expression of views. This same anonymity and unconstrained expression can initiate uncivil debate. The political blogosphere is thus replete with uncivil discussions and becomes an apt context to examine the influence of incivility on news frames. Moreover, although there is an increasingly growing literature on framing, few have examined framing effects in the contemporary media landscape. Thus, the present study brings in literature from incivility and framing effects to examine the influence of incivility on news frames for perceptual outcomes. The study uses an experiment embedded in a Web survey. Findings show that incivility increases the credibility of a news article while decreasing political trust and political efficacy. Further, results demonstrate the interactions of incivility and news frames. For instance, news credibility is increased only in the value framed condition. And a combination of strategic frames and incivility results in the least political trust and external efficacy. Implications are discussed. [Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Political Communication for the following free supplemental resource(s): stimulus material for the experiment.]

Politisk framing er politisk magt

The political center-left in Denmark is in a crisis both when it comes to share of votes, policy formulation and rhetoric. Can the center-left regain some of its strength by actively employing strategic framing in the same measure as we have seen the conservatives in USA do it? is article introduces framing as phenomenon, illustrates the principal part that framing plays in politics through a series of concrete examples of political framing, including the con ict at Restaurant Vejlegården last summer. As the examples will show, framing is more than an American phenomenon. It is very relevant and already in play in a Danish context as well. e article will show that framing exists across countries, electoral systems and ideological movements. Fur- thermore, the article will demonstrate that the Danish center-left has a big challenge when it comes to setting the political agenda through framing, but also great possibilities to improve this e ort.

Strategic Re‐framing as a Vote Winner: Why Vote‐seeking Governments Pursue Unpopular Reforms

Most political science accounts assume that governments in Western democracies avoid unpopular reforms to protect their re‐election chances. Nevertheless, governments sometimes embark on electorally risky reforms – even in times when they have no slack in the polls. In this article, it is argued that pursuing unpopular reforms can be a perfectly rational strategy for vote‐seeking governments. Based on a simple game theoretical model that compares strategic framing with the classic blame avoidance strategy, it is demonstrated that unpopular policy reforms allow governments to pursue gains of both policy and votes by opting for a highly visible strategy of reframing the substantive reform issue in question. This general argument is illustrated with the substantial 2011 retrenchment of Danish early retirement benefits. This particular welfare state programme was highly popular. Nevertheless, the incumbent Liberal prime minister proposed to abolish it only a few months prior to a national election while his government was trailing significantly in the polls.

Issue framing in the European Commission: State aid policy and the single market

State aid rules of the European Union regulate member states’ subsidies to industry and grant the European Commission extensive powers to monitor compliance with these rules. Until the 1980s, the Commission was reluctant to use these powers and state aid control in the Community remained weak. Since then, its control over member state aid has increased gradually, resulting in more extensive investigative powers, and on average, lower levels of state aid in the EU. In this article, I argue that the European Commission's strategic framing of the state aid issue played a significant role in the transformation of the policy in the late 1980s and the 1990s. As a policy entrepreneur, the Commission framed the issue of state aids in relation to market integration in the 1980s and the Economic and Monetary Union in the 1990s, and thus helped shape the interests of the member states and economic actors and paved the way for the gradual tightening of state aid control.

Performance Feedback Model and Moderating Effect of Strategic Frames

We incorporate the managerial cognition to performance feedback model in order to examine how mental model shifts attention and its effect on the consequences of performance feedback. We argue that strategic frames that arise from their mental model play significant roles in strategic decision making, especially in era of turnaround. The empirical results supported the hypothesis that firms with prospector-oriented frames will focus more on aspiration level, then strength tendency of risk behavior, whereas firms with defender-oriented frames will focus on survival level, then weaken tendency of risk behavior. Theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Strategic Cognition and Issue Salience: Toward an Explanation of Firm Responsiveness to Stakeholder Concerns

As a new perspective for understanding firm responsiveness to stakeholder concerns, we propose a strategic cognition view of issue salience—that is, the degree to which a stakeholder issue resonates with and is prioritized by management. Specifically, we explain how a firm's cognitive structures of organizational identity and strategic frames use different core logics to influence managerial interpretation of an issue as salient. We then present a typology of firm responsiveness and suggest that firms will respond more substantially to those issues perceived as salient to both cognitive logics and more symbolically to those issues perceived as salient to only one logic. This article fills key gaps in our understanding of how firms manage and respond to stakeholders by focusing on the salience of the issue and incorporating strategic cognition as a key mediating mechanism.

The Importance of Framing for Communicating Risk and Managing Forest Health

Despite the importance of effective communication about forest and fuel management, little is known about how best to frame information to facilitate public understanding and increase support. The results presented here indicate that framing a fuel management plan as necessary to restore “lost” forest health (as opposed to maintaining or improving forest health) will increase the willingness of individuals to support options that pose some likelihood of failure (i.e., risk). Strategic framing of communication for public audiences is necessary because of the common biases in judgment that can result from an inadvertently chosen message frame. Focusing on the restoration of losses is an effective frame for communication if the goal is to increase tolerance for the risks inherent in forest and fuel management.