Framing in general is how the media presents all of its information. It is a way the media shows us what they feel and what us to see. Although the news should not have bias, it is almost always geared in a certain distinct direction. The news wants you to see and believe in what they believe in. Framing makes this very possible. A good example of framing from McQuail's Mass Communication Theory is "almost all news about the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was for decades reported in terms of the Cold War and the Soviet 'enemy'."
To try and get an idea of this concept of framing, I looked at two articles on the same subject from two different news sources. The first is from CNN, which tends to be a more liberal reporting news station.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/02/23/cheney.asia.ap/index.html
The next article is from Fox News which is known for its strong conservative views. This article is significantly shorter and does not go into as much detail as the previous article.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254219,00.html
As you can see, both articles are based around the same idea, but focus in on much different details. The CNN article goes into how Iran claims they are using the atomic programs as a source of energy not for nuclear weapons. The article also brings up how British Prime Minister Tony Blair will begin pull troops out within the next couple of months, as if to tell the reader if our allies are beginning to pull their troops of one country, why are we going to start up with another country. However, the article from Fox News does not go into much detail at all and is short and to the point. All this article mentions is how Iran has a nuclear program and refuses to freeze the enrichment program and is beginning to expand it.
I feel that to get a feel of what's really going on, you have to read a few articles from different sources and draw your own conclusion because one just does not cut it. For example, the Fox News' article made me feel like we have to do something right now to stop Iran's nuclear program, while CNN's article made me sit back and think, we should really figure out what's going on before we do anything. But what do you think? Does media bias and framing play to large of role in our society today?
1 comment:
Fox News is always a great example of framing, because they're reporting procedures always follow so closely to their conservative schemata. It amused me that in the Fox headline Cheney says military action is on the table, but there is no direct quote from him saying that in either article. Rather quite ambiguously, he left "all options open." Also, because it's the headline, it has more implied salience- making military action against Iran seem more likely. Again, Fox News playing up the conflict (not that other news outlets don't do this).
I also find it interesting that Iran and Iraq are repeatedly framed in the same news stories. I know the common link here is Cheney's visit to Australia... but both the Fox News and CNN stories seem to gel into each other- 1st the possiblility of military action in Iran, then discussing troop levels in Iraq. After reading the articles, by grouping these two totally separate situations together- it almost feels to me like we are already involved in a conflict with Iran- when it hasn't even happened yet.
I don't think Bush would go to war with Iran (where would he get the troops?) but it's almost like we're being primed for it by putting news there in the context of Iraq quite often.
Post a Comment