Framing in Media

How do frames work? Generally speaking they usually add a nice border to a picture or painting for visual effect. But more specifically what is contained within a frame? Often it is something that somebody wants seen. When a photographer or painter frames a picture, they are framing something that they obviously want people to see. Framing in the media works the same way and a clear example of media framing is often found in political campaign advertisements.

Framing is the act of including/removing certain facts or details in a story or video to shape the viewers' interpretation of whatever the story is depicting. For example a reporter could frame a story about worker unions either positively or negatively. If they were to frame it positively, they could report about the good things unions do, such as fight for workers' rights. A negatively framed report of unions could talk about their method of striking as a poor form of protest that hurts the economy and the community. Either way all the facts are not included, and in a framed story, one side is depicted while the other is avoided even though both may be true.

As before mentioned, political campaigns are usually very good examples of media framing, especially if they are attack ads. These attack ads will pick on every flaw of an opponent and try to get viewers to think of them negatively. The tone in the ads make all the facts seem terrible, even though they do not explain why they are bad. They also do not include any positive things the candidate did because they want the audience to completely associate them with bad emotions. An example of this political media framing is this advertisement by Meg Whitman against opponent Jerry Brown during the 2010 race for Governor of California:

This ad uses the words "fail" and "failure" more times in 60 seconds then I have ever seen before. This negative framing is a way in which Whitman tries to get voters to see Brown as an enemy of the state and a horrible politician. She frames what she thinks are his negative acts in politics and not only deliberately leaves out any positive things he has done in his career, but does not explain why he did the things he did and if they were even bad or not. She just knows that voters hate spending and know that job cuts are bad, so she uses that to her advantage, not needing to explain herself.

Framing is done all over the media, in advertisements as well as stories in newspapers, online reports, and even television shows. This way framers can show the audience exactly what they want them to see, and leave out everything else.