Framing

Framing is a technique of propaganda: 

Framing is a psychological and sociological concept that has many applications and has been the subject of a great deal of research and experimentation. But in the public arena – particularly in current events and politics – it essentially means establishing guidelines that influence how the public perceives a particular topic – or even what topic the public perceives. 

I often talk about framing when I use the term templates—how we look at the world. 

Television, by deciding which video clip to show, can frame any issue to predetermine the desired conclusion in the viewer. To look at this more in depth, look at an older blog post of mine—Good Television. 

In general it works this way. If you have two clips of the Occupy Wall Street protestors, one where the person is calm and coherent, and another where a crazy is defecating on a police car, which one you use will be predetermined by the producer’s view of the protests. 

If you start to watch for this you will notice its constant use in news. It does not matter if you are watching Faux News or PMSNBC, they all do it. (Note that I just used a propaganda technique called “name calling,” which I will talk about on Friday.) 

Here is a report from RT America in which they interview 3-time Emmy award winner Amber Lyon. The clip begins talking about how the Iranians are being framed, in both senses of the word, by the choice of what parts of a speech to air. 

For some reason the information that Bahrain is paying CNN to air positive stories about Bahrain is not being talked about on Mainstream News. Only alternative news sources will talk about it. 

CNN is being paid to frame stories. While you can see framing, this kind of framing you can never see. You cannot see what they decide not to show. This is framing at its worse. The more varied your news consumption habits, the less you will be decieved. 

Comments

[Doug Young]

Explanation of government to an alien

[[Positive Dennis]]

Interesting video. I may have this in the blog soon.