Reese, Stephen SAC 09

1. Media framing in
global context
Stephen Reese
University of Texas
@sdreese

2. Salzburg Academy on Media & Global
Change
Media Action Plans (MAPs)
Part 1: Articulating the Challenge
What role do MEDIA play in this
challenge?

6. media literacy goals
• understand the media system
• produce one's own media
• decode media messages

8. Media literacy in the network
society
• In the age of social media, do professional news
gatekeepers still have power?
• Yes, but part of a new eco-system
• Social media help complement, amplify,
redistribute

9. media frames
and framing

10. – (Reese, 2001)
Frames are “organizing principles”

11. Issues are “framed”…

12. – (Entman, 1993)
“in
such
a
way as to promote a particular
problem definition, causal interpretation,
moral evaluation, and/or treatment
recommendation.”

13. – William Gamson
Frames are “media packages”
(with exemplars, metaphors,
catchphrases, visual images)

20. The power of
language

21. Framing Human rights

22. How did the U.S. press
frame the Iraq Abu Ghraib
prison scandal?
None dare call it torture (Bennett et al.)

23. “Abuse” vs.
“Torture”

24. Who promoted the
“abuse” frame?

25. Answer: The U.S. administration

26. … and the “echoing” press

27. framing examples

28. US in Iraq
“Liberation” vs.
“Invasion”

29. Framing global conflict

30. Salzburg
presentation
2012
Most important NY Times
frames
7/16/12

31. • Frame resonated with U.S. “war on
terror” (with Sudan president the villain)
• Implied solution: punishment vs.
finding solution rooted in historical land
ownership conflict

36. Personal vs. Societal
causes

38. “credit” vs. “debt”
“opportunity”/payment vs.
“risk”/repayment

40. “human dignity” vs.
“religious conscience”

41. Framing 9/11

42. “Global War on Terror”

43. Elements of the “War on Terror”
frame
• “war”
• “axis of evil” (WW II)
• “evil doers”
• Pearl Harbor
• “war president”
• “terrorism”, “terror”

44. Framing language: “Terrorism” vs.
“Terror”

45. Elite linking: "After September 11th having been hit once how could
we take a chance that Saddam might strike again? And that's the
threat that has been removed and I think we are all safer
….” (3/11/09)

46. A press-state construction?
• (1 Nov. 2001) NBC Meet the Press
host Tim Russert:
• "We are at war, and all of us must
come together as never before,"
Russert said. "Simply put: There are
those who want to destroy us, our
people -- men, women and children --
our institutions, our way of life,
our freedom.

47. Journalists’ role in framing
• They “transmitted” the frame…
• But also took the frame (and policy) for
granted
• It became “naturalized”

48. Political opponents failed to find a
“counter-frame”
John Kerry: “Now, more than ever, with our
soldiers in harm’s way, we must stand
together and succeed
in
Iraq
and
win
the
war
on
terror.”

49. The War on Terror as a natural
“fact of life”
“Bin Laden showed new strengths and
fallibilities in his tape. They revealed, too, the
antidote: determination in the war on terror.”

50. Group question:
Which country represented at
your table has the most
media freedom?
(give reasons)

51. Freedom House: Press Freedom Ranking

54. To what extent do nation-
states still control media
frames?

55. changing boundaries of framing

57. The new “global
journalists”

58. Peter Berglez: “global” as embedded
in news “perspective"

59. –Peter Berglez
"News information with a global outlook
establishes knowledge of how our lives in
Copenhagen, Cairo, Brisbane and Mexico City
are intertwined”

60. Forest Loss in Sumatra
Here on the island of
Sumatra, ...........................
.........................................
................are some of the world’s
fastest-disappearing
forests . . . ...........................
............................companies
have been claiming any land they can.
(New York Times)

61. Forest Loss in Sumatra Becomes a
Global Issue
Here on the island of Sumatra, about 1200 miles
from the global climate talks under way on
Bali, are some of the world’s fastest-
disappearing forests . . . Responding to global
demand for palm oil, which is used in cooking
and cosmetics and, lately, in an increasingly
popular biodiesel, companies have been
claiming any land they can. (New York Times)

62. Climate Change Soon Could Kill
Thousands in UK, Says Report
Climate change could lead to a
heatwave in the south-east in England
killing 3,000 people within the next
decade, a Department of Health report
said today. (The Guardian)

63. encouraging a global
outlook

65. transparency activists

66. “bridge blogs”

67. globalized new journalism
platforms

68. media work of global civil society

69. media literacy goals
• the media system has changed
• because people can produce and connect
• making the media target of decoding more
diffused
• framing is still happening

70. frames still need
decoding
(and countering)

71. The State is still active

72. …but so are you