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The Empirical Approach to the Study of Media Framing

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Like other concepts of mass communication research, the term framing has also appeared in popular discourse – particularly that of media critics, politicians, and campaign insiders. For instance, linguistics scholar and media critic Noam Chomsky used the term in an interview discussing New York Times coverage of the crisis in Kuwait prior to the Gulf War (Szykowny, 1990). Chomsky argued that the Times story framed an offer by Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait in a way that trivialized the offer. Media critic David Shaw of The Los Angeles Times used the word frame in a discussion of news coverage of abortion (Shaw, 1990). Shaw noted that “the very language used to frame the abortion debate in much of the media implicitly favors the abortion rights advocates” (p. C1). Political poll watchers have long known that wording a question in a particular way can frame the issue in a specific way. Different polls about abortion, for instance, will often produce contrary results. Pollster Harrison Hickman argued that this kind of effect can extend even beyond the polls: “Just as the polls come out according to the way the question is asked, so will the outcome of elections depend on who is…

“The Empirical Approach to the Study of Media Framing”, JamesW.Tankard, Jr.S.D.Reese, O.H.Gandy and A.E.Grant (eds), Framing Public Life: Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World, Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001, pp. 95–106. Reproduced with permission of Taylor & Francis Group LLC – Books; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.”

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