Chapter 10 Presentation

1. MEDIA & CULTURE
THEORIES PT.2
Chapter 10: Media CultureTheories

2. FRAMING AND
FRAME ANALYSIS

3. Framing & Frame Analysis
■ Roots- symbolic interaction and
social constructionism
– Both argue that expectations we form
about ourselves, others and our social
world are central to social life
■ Expectations include:
stereotypes, attitudes, racial or
ethnic biases
– Assume that our expectations are socially
constructed
■ They share the following
assumptions about expectations:
– Expectations are based on previous
experiences (media or direct personal
experiences)
– Expectations can be resistant to change
even when contradicted by facts
– Expectations are often associated with
and can stimulate strong emotions- hate,
fear and love
– We are usually unaware of our
expectations, so we can’t make
predictions about our feelings or actions in
future situations
– Expectations guide our actions without
our conscious awareness

4. Erving Goffman
■ Sociologist who invented frame
analysis in 1974
■ He wondered how we manage to
cope so easily with the complicated
situations that we constantly
encounter

5. Argued that we constantly and often
radically change the ways we define
or typify situations, actions and
others but we aren’t consciously
aware of these changes

6. Framing & Frame Analysis
■ Frame Analysis: micro-level theory
which focuses on how individuals
use expectations to make sense of
everyday life situations and the
people in them
■ Goffman used the term FRAME to
refer to a specific set of
expectations used to make sense
of a social situation at a given point
in time
■ Downshift or Upshift- when we
move from one set of frames to
another
– We reframe situations so we experience
them as more or less serious

7. Shifts & Social Cues
■ How do we and the people
around us know when to make
shifts?
– According to Goffman, we are always
monitoring our social environment for
social cues
■ Social cues- information in the
social environment that signals a
shift or change of action
■ Social Cues & Media:
– We can learn social cues through everyday
interaction and from learning how these
cues are used in media content
– Ads can be used to teach and reinforce a
social cue-They regularly prime us to
frame situations one way rather than
another
– Media can be used to elaborate or
reinforce a dominant public culture
Can you think of any other examples of social cues
used in ads or the media?

8. EARLY EXAMPLES
OF FRAMING
RESEARCH

9. Early Research
■ Todd Gitlin & GayeTuchman:
– concluded that news mainly serves to perpetuate the status quo and to undermine
social movements

10. Early Research
■ William Gamson:
– Found that frames are increasingly
developed and promoted in public
discourse by individuals and groups having
an interest in advancing certain ways of
seeing the social world rather than others
– Shared the social constructionist view-
social institutions and the elites who lead
them are able to dominate the social
world by propagating fames serving their
interests
■ Beliefs are based on Robert Entman’s
Cascading Activation Model
– a perspective on framing that suggests
that there is a framing hierarchy in public
discourse with powerful public officials on
top and the press at the lowest level

11. THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THEORIES OF FRAMES
AND FRAMING

12. Development of Framing
■ Today it is one of the leading theories of mass communication
■ Popularity has resulted in the Development of different versions
– primarily interested in framing
theory as a new and potentially
more useful way to understand and
predict media effects
– macroscopic conceptualizations of
framing that take into account:
■ Elite efforts to control framing
■ Framing done by journalists
■ The way framing shapes public
understanding of the social world
Postpositivist Critical Cultural

13. THE EFFECTS OF
FRAMES ON
NEWS AUDIENCES

14. Findings:
■ The most common finding-
Exposure to news coverage results
in learning that is consistent with
the frames that structure the
coverage
■ News coverage can strongly
influence the way news readers or
viewers make sense of the world
■ Social Movements: undermined
and framed as potentially violent
■ Election Campaigns: framed as
horse races- focus on who is
winning or losing
■ Elections: framed as contests in
which conflicts are central
– Limited attention given to framing public
issues and more on framing personalities
and personal lives of candidates

15. MEDIA & CULTURE
THEORIES PT. 3
Chapter 10: Media CultureTheories

16. POST POSITIVISTVS.
CRITICAL CULTURAL
APPROACHESTO
FRAMING

17. Post Positivist Approach to Framing
■ Concerned with the theory as a new and more useful
way to understand and predict the effects of media.
■ They want to know how an event is processed and
whether the exposure to specific information framed
a certain way has specific effects on people.

18. Critical CulturalApproach to Framing
■ Critical Cultural scholars believe that the post
positivist angle of studying framing is too narrow, and
instead focus on how elites and journalists utilize and
control framing, as well as how framing shapes
people's understanding of the social world.

19. MEDIA AS CULTURE
INDUSTRIES:THE
COMMODIFICATION OF
CULTURE

20. Commodification of Culture
■ The study of what happens when culture is mass produced
and distributed in direct competition with locally based
cultures
■ These modern media industries have grown and become
dominant at the expense of smaller, more local media
producers.
■ The media takes hints of our folk culture, weaves in new
pieces of mass culture content, and market it as something
brand new.
Can you think of any examples in our society where the
commodification of culture has occurred?

21. What are the consequences?
1. When elements of every day culture are
selected for repackaging, only a limited
range is chosen, and important
elements are overlooked of consciously
ignored.
2. The repackaging process involves
dramatization of those elements of
culture that are selected.
3. The marketing of cultural commodities
is undertaken in a way that maximizes
the likelihood that they will intrude into
and ultimately disrupt everyday life.
4.The elites who operate the cultural
industries generally are ignorant of the
consequences of their work.
5. Disruption of our everyday life takes
many forms- some disruptions are
obviously linked to consumption of
especially deleterious content, but other
forms are very subtle and occur over
long periods.

22. ADVERTISING:THE
ULTIMATE CULTURAL
COMMODITY

23. Advertising:The Ultimate Cultural Commodity
■ Advertisers often create messages targeting people who may
have had little interest in the product initially or even people
who have no real need for a product.
■ CommonThemes:
– Creating a new and improved personal identity
– Having fun
– Making friends
– Solving problems

24. "We work too hard so that we can buy things we don’t need, made by
factory workers who are paid too little, and produced in ways that
threaten the survival of the earth. [The United States] will be
remembered as the greatest wealth producer ever. It will be a culture
remembered for its promise and might and its tremendous
achievements in technology and health. It also will be remembered as
a culture of hedonism to rival any culture that has ever existed, a
culture of materialism and workaholism, and individualism, a culture
of superficiality and disposability, of poverty, and pollution and
vanity and violence, a culture denuded of it spiritual wisdom."
-Jelly Helm, 2002

25. Do you think things in the media and advertising
industry have really made the situation in America this
bad, or do you think Helm is too critical of the industry?