1.1 What is framing?

Course subject(s) 1. About framing

In the first episode, we will show you the main characteristics of a frame. Before we get started, however, we need to define what framing actually is. Here is an example:

Suppose you are on a holiday in this house with your children, and you send one of these photographs to your parents. Perhaps you would like to emphasise that the children have had a great time swimming during the holiday – and you send the top photographs.

But it is also possible that your parents are concerned about their youngest grandchild. They know you have rented a holiday home with a swimming pool and that your youngest child cannot swim… In this case the top photographs look dangerous. However, you can send the bottom photograph. The swimming pool has high sides, so it is not possible for a small child to fall into the water!

Perhaps you had seen the top photograph in a brochure and you decided to rent the house. After all, it has a fantastic swimming pool. When you arrived, the pool turned out to be much smaller. You are angry about this and send both the framed photographs to your parents – to show how you have been duped by the owner.

What is happening here? Each time, the same reality is shown in a different frame. This leads us to over interpret and under interpret certain aspects of reality.

 

From pictures to language

What we do with photographs, we can do with language. The words, phrases, one-liners or metaphors that we use often lead to an over- or underinterpretation of reality. Have a look at this:

Freedom fighter – Terrorist
Illegal imigrant – Undocumented worker
Climate change – Global warming
Modernisation – Reorganisation
Genetic modification – Genetic manipulation
A critical review – A cynical review
Electromagnetic fields – Electrosmog
Biofuel – Ethanol

Again and again, we use different words for the same thing. Take the following example: In 2004, Maria crossed the border into our country illegally. Since then, she has been working in this country, has been promoted twice, and has had two children. How do we describe Maria? We could call her:

‘an undocumented worker’

but also:

‘an illegal immigrant’

If we describe Maria as an undocumented worker, we are emphasising that she is working and contributing to society and the economy. The only thing missing is some documents – that sounds like a bureaucratic issue, which should be possible to resolve. If we refer to her as an illegal immigrant, then we are emphasising that she is illegal – and she should really leave the country.

In the first episode we will discuss what the characteristics of a good frame are. Enjoy!

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Framing by TU Delft OpenCourseWare is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/framing/.
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