introduction to framing part 2

8/6/2019 Introduction to Framing Part 2

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INTRODUCTION TO FRAMING PART 2

MASTER NARRATIVES

Your story of the moment should be an instance of a large ,

simple overarching narrative


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REVIEW: WHAT IS A FRAME?

Frames are organizing principles that waresocially shared and persistent over time, that worksymbolically to meaningfully structure the social

world. Or , another way of thinking about them, they are a

tool kit of ideas that allow us to quickly understandour world. When we are presented with some idea,

problem, situation, etc. elements of that situationcan trigger pre-established ideas, progressunderstandings .


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FRAME DEFINED - 2

A good framer makes sure that the words used,

the images used in presenting the situation

trigger the pre-established ideas and

understandings they want and not the ones

they do not.


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REVIEW: SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT THE

FRAME

Please take a second and read the material Ihave handed out to you. For the sake of time,concentrate on the boxed text.

To spot the frame, ask yourself thesequestions:

What is the problem?

Who is causing the problem?Who is the victim?

Who is the hero?


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REVIEW: SEEING A FRAME

On the ground of course, it means that the MadisonMetropolitan School District will not be educating anychildren today. For the third day in a row this week, theunion members ofMadison Teachers, Inc. [4], will stage

a sick out today to protest Governor Scott Walkers (R)new budget, which would overcome a $137 millionbudget deficit this year and a projected $3.6 billiondeficit over the next two years. Stacy Billings, a parent oftwo Madison students, told the Wisconsin State Journal[5]

that she supports unions and opposes Walkersproposal but is against a teacher protest during schoolhours: Thats not acceptable to me. My tax dollars payfor the teachers to teach and not to protest.


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THE RIGHTWING NETWORK

http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/15/alec/

One key insight you should take from this history is that after the Goldwaterdefeat in 1964, visionary conservative leaders began to build a series oforganizations and networks designed to promote their values and constructsystematic strategies for sympathetic politicians. Some of theseorganizations are reasonably well knownfor instance, the Heritage

Foundation, founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, a Racine native and UW-Madison alumnus who also started the Moral Majority and whoseimportance to the movement is almost impossible to overestimatebutmany of these groups remain largely invisible.

The most important group, Im pretty sure, is the American LegislativeExchange Council (ALEC), which was founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, LouBarnett, and (surprise, surprise) Paul Weyrich. Its goal for the past fortyyears has been to draft model bills that conservative legislators canintroduce in the 50 states. Its website claims that in each legislative cycle,its members introduce 1000 pieces of legislation based on its work, andclaims that roughly 18% of these bills are enacted into law. (Among themwas the controversial 2010 anti-immigrant law in Arizona.)


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WHY THIS FRAMING IS STATEGIC/MULTI-

LAYERED

1, Attacks a key Democratic support group both funding and volunteers

2. Attacks unions in general or lays the

groundwork for it.

3. Can be carried out incrementally

4. Undermines support for public school

teachers softens up public opinion for all theprivatized alternatives.

Overton window


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A LOCAL EXAMPLE OF THIS FRAMING

Dan Patrick said lay offs in public education couldbe largely avoided if school districts had the abilityto cut teacher wages instead of positions.

"The teachers associations, not the teachers, theirassociation lobbyists put into law that districtscannot reduce salaries by even a dollar, so schooldistricts don't have the flexibility to say to theirteachers we can keep all of you if we could cut

your salaries 1 or 2 percent over the next couple ofyears until the economy turns around," Patricksaid.


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A REFRAMING

I believe in the right to freedom of association. Its in theconstitution. Workers have the right to organize and bargainabout their wages and their working conditions its asAmerican as apple pie. Workers have died to protect this

right. When workers are threatened with unfair wage and work

rules, they should speak up, especially when their employeris talking about unilaterally tearing up their contracts.

If tax-payers have to honor the contracts of wall streetwheeler-dealers, even while they are taking our bailoutmoney, we darn well have to honor union contracts.

If the employer faces hard times, then negotiations is theway to go, not union-busting .


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SOME KEY DEFINITIONS:MYTH

Myth

1. a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical

events that serves to unfold part of the world view

of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural

phenomenon b : parable, allegory

2 a popular belief or tradition that has grown up

around something or someone; especially : oneembodying the ideals and institutions of a society

or segment of society


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SOME KEY DEFINITIONS:

METHAPHOR

Metaphors are comparisons that show how two

things that are not alike in most ways are

similar in one important way.

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase

literally denoting one kind of object or idea is

used in place of another to suggest a likeness

or analogy between them (as in drowning inmoney)


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SOME KEY DEFINITIONS: PARABLE

a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or

teach some truth, religious principle, or moral

lesson.

An extended metaphor narrated as an

anecdote illustrating and teaching a moral

lesson.


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WHERE FRAMES/BRANDS COME

FROM

Master Narratives/myths:

Reichs master myth

(1) The Rot at the Top, or stories of corruption in high

places and conspiracies against the public; (2) The Triumphant Individual, or hard work pays off

more than class privilege;

(3) The Benign Community of neighbors helping each

other; (4) The Mob at the Gates, or how the society is coming

apart from an excess of democratic permissiveness.


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PREAMBLE OF THE CONSTITUTION

We the people of the United States, in order to

form a more perfect union, establish justice,

insure domestic tranquility, provide for the

common defense, promote the general welfare,

and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves

and our posterity, do ordain and establish this

Constitution for the United States ofAmerica.


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THE ELEVATOR SPEECH FROM MASTER

NARRATIVE TO PRACTICAL TOOL

Example Elevator Speech

I believe that all Americans should have a fair chance to realize

their dreams. I believe we are stronger when all of us are

secure in the knowledge that one bad fall, one serious illnesswill not destroy all we have worked and saved for. I believe no

one, not our children, our elderly , or our families should be left

to the tender mercies of Big Insurance and BigPharma. The

Health Care Reform Act, for all its faults, takes us closer to that

America than the do nothing plans of its opponents.


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THE ELEMENTS OF THE ELEVATOR

SPEECH

I believe in [followed by two strong progressive

value words for a total of 27 words to be delivered

in 9 seconds]

The ES is based on our specific framing of the issue

We take words, ideas and images from the specific

framing of the issue.

The specific framing is ,in turn, based in our masternarrative/framing of our position- our statement of

who we are and what we broadly stand for.


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THE MESSAGE/SPECIFIC FRAMING

America promises its people protection for their life,

liberty and their pursuit of happiness. This can be an

empty promise for the uninsured, especially children and

workingA

mericans. We are the wealthiest country in theworld yet we rank 44th in infant mortality , 38th in life

expectancy and last in the cost of health care.(See note at

end.) We also have the highest number of uninsured, with

Texas standing squarely at the bottom among the states.

This is NOT acceptable.


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THE OVERALL NARRATIVE/BRANDING

Americans are bound together by their adherence to the values laid

down by Our founding fathers and mothers. We are banded together

because together we can create a more perfect union. If we work

together , guided by our thirst for justice, seeking always the common

good , then our story is not ended, but just beginning. From DFHs framing of the Healthcare Reform issue.

We face a moment of great peril brought on by the greed and

irresponsibility of some and the collective failure of us all to make

hard choices about our future. These are the times that try mens

souls, that sap their confidence, but we have chosen hope over fear,

unity of purpose over conflict and discord. Based on Obamas campaign and inauguration speeches


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YOUR FIRST TRY: FRAMING AT HOME

Elevator Speech and First Framing Worksheet

Your task: write an elevator speech in which you frame a

topic of your choice. Use the master frames of this lesson or

create your own. Health care

Financial Reform

School Finance

The Budget/Deficit Unionism

Uses and limits of the elevator speech


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THE POLITICAL BRAIN NEXT TIME

The view of democracy that naturally flows from the dispassionate view of the mind is of a marketplace of

ideas. Parties and politicians who want to convince others of their point of view lay out the data, make their

best case, and leave it to the electorate to weigh the arguments and exercise their capacity to reason. To the

Western ear, and particularly to the American ear, this view of mind and politics seems eminently

reasonable. But this view of mind and brain couldnt be further from the truth. In politics, when reason and

emotion collide, emotion invariably wins. Although the marketplace of ideas is a great place to shop for

policies, the marketplace that matters most in American politics is the marketplace of emotions. Republicans

have a keen eye for markets, and they have a near-monopoly in the marketplace of emotions. They have kept

government off our backs, torn down that wall, saved the flag, left no child behind, protected life, kept our

marriages sacred, restored integrity to the Oval Office, spread democracy to the Middle East, and fought an

unrelenting war on terror. The Democrats, in contrast, have continued to place their stock in the marketplace

of ideas. And in so doing, they have been trading in the wrong futures. I have it on good authority (i.e., off the

record) that leading conservatives have chortled with joy (usually accompanied by astonishment) as they

watched their Democratic counterparts campaign by reciting their best facts and figures, as if they were

trying to prevail in a high school debate tournament. They must have heaved a huge sigh of relief (but not on

the air) when Al Gore ran for president pretending that he had not co-presided over one of the most

prosperous periods in modern American history.

Westen, Drew (2008). The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (pp. 35-36).

PublicAffairs. Kindle Edition.

introduction to framing part 2

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