The Art and Science of Framing an Issue

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The Art and Science of Framing an Issue MAPThe Art and Science of Framing an Issue Authors Contributing Editors © January 2008, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Movement Advancement Project (MAP). All rights reserved. “Ideas are a medium of exchange and a mode of influence even more powerful than money, votes and guns. … Ideas are at the center of all political conflict.” —Deborah Stone, Policy Process Scholar, 2002 The Art and Science of 1 Framing an Issue an Issue and Science of Framing Art The The Battle Over Ideas 2 Understanding How People Think 2 What Is Framing? 4 Levels of Framing 5 Tying to Values 6 Why Should I Spend Resources on Framing? 6 How Do I Frame My Issue? 7 Step 1. Understand the Mindset of Your Target Audience 7 Step 2. Know When Your Current Frames Aren’t Working 7 Step 3. Know the Elements of a Frame 7 Step 4. Speak to People’s Core Values 9 Step 5. Avoid Using Opponents’ Frames, Even to Dispute Them 9 Step 6. Keep Your Tone Reasonable 10 Step 7. Avoid Partisan Cues 10 Step 8. Build a New Frame 10 Step 9. Stick With Your Message 11 “Ideas are a medium of exchange and a mode of influence even more powerful than money, votes and guns. … Ideas are at the center of all political conflict.” —Deborah Stone, Policy Process Scholar, 2002 2 The Battle Over Ideas Are we exploring for oil that’s desperately needed to drive our economy and sustain our nation? Or are we Think back to when you were 10 years old, staring at destroying delicate ecological systems and natural your dinner plate, empty except for a pile of soggy– lands that are a legacy to our grandchildren? These looking green vegetables. If you had a typical mother, two different views of the same activity (drilling for oil) she might’ve snapped something like: “Eat your create two very different reactions. cabbage! Children are starving in Africa!” If her line of reasoning was entirely uncompelling to your slightly self-centered 10-year-old brain, you weren’t alone. In Understanding How People Think fact, maybe you even thought something ungrateful Imagine sitting on your living room sofa between a in response, like: “Well then box up this cabbage and protest button-wearing human rights activist and a mail it to them!” tight-collared, beeper-wearing social conservative, Why? Because as a 10-year-old, you didn’t value the when a story airs on the nightly news about a family in fact that you went to bed with a full stomach and you crisis. A mix-up at the welfare office has left the family couldn’t relate to malnourished kids living on the other without the check they rely on for food. The civil rights The Art and Science of Framing an Issue and Science of Framing Art The side of the world. activist shakes his head sadly. “That’s what’s wrong with this country. We just don’t take care of our poor.” What you did value, however, was dessert. So when your mother instead snapped, “If you don’t clean your The social conservative loosens his collar in surprise. plate right now you’re not getting any ice cream,” that “We wouldn’t have to take care of these people if created a compelling reason to scarf some cabbage. they’d just work for a living like everyone else.” We hate to say it, but sometimes communicating Same news story. Two totally different interpretations. to the public is like convincing someone to eat their How does this happen? vegetables. You want to talk about malnourishment, but nobody listens unless you talk about ice cream. Whether you realize it or not, when you talk about an Social advocates generally aren’t communicating with issue, people interpret whatever you say in the context 10-year-olds, but the concept of breaking an idea down of their existing worldviews. People aren’t blank slates, into something that your audience cares about is still and they won’t ponder your carefully laid-out facts in the same. a vacuum. Instead, they use mental shortcuts to make sense of the world. They slot new information into Ideas, and how they’re expressed, are at the center larger mental constructs that they already know to be of all political conflict. In political battles, each side “true.” puts forward different but equally plausible ideas of what’s happening and what needs to happen. They try The way this works is simple. We all rely on a set of to present their ideas in a way that makes Americans internalized beliefs and values or frameworks, to care about them. They strategically pick the data, facts interpret and give meaning to unfolding events. and information that best persuade people to see a situation their way. Two Typical Views On Marriage For Gay Couples 1. “Marriage for gay couples is an issue of fairness.” 2. “Gay marriage will destroy the traditional family.” 3 Internalized Thought Structures Affect How We Process Information an Issue and Science of Framing Art The Internalized thought Reaction to newspaper Reaction to newspaper structure story of a family story on higher on welfare incarceration rates for people of color America is a country If a family is on welfare, People wouldn’t be where anyone can be it’s likely because the incarcerated if they successful if they work parents don’t care to work. obeyed the law. hard and are responsible. America is a country Systemic discrimination If a family is on welfare, where many people fall leads to higher it’s likely because some through the cracks or are incarceration for people of hardship befell them. victims of the system. color. These frameworks are hardwired into our brains Often we’re unaware of our patterns of reasoning. through habit and experience; they shape the way we None of us can see or hear the frameworks that see the world. For example, if you’re a pacifist, you determine our core values, underlying principles, won’t be moved by the President’s arguments that we and moral worldview. They’re part of what cognitive can contain violence in Iraq by sending more troops. scientists call the cognitive unconscious—structures Instead, you’ll fit his arguments into your existing in our brains that we can’t consciously access, but that worldview that violence begets more violence (or that affect the way we reason. violence is always wrong). But if you’re Machiavelli If we’re debating a point, we run into trouble when we and you believe it’s better to be feared than loved, don’t take into account how differently people see the you might believe the President isn’t sending enough world. Most parents raise their children to believe in troops. universal common sense. If that were true, no child We absorb new information by mentally fitting it into would ever try to put a wet cat in a dryer. Common our existing belief systems. This allows us to process sense for each of us is determined by experience and information quickly and get on with our lives. Note knowledge acquired over time. Since we all have that we almost always fit the information into our different backgrounds, we all have different notions of belief systems, as opposed to changing our belief common sense. Advocates for LGBT equality and our systems to fit the information. For example, a pacifist opponents consistently mystify each other because would likely think: “The President wants a troop surge, neither group takes into account the subjectivity of but I know violence begets more violence. Clearly, the common sense. Common sense for you might be President’s strategy is bad.” A pacifist would be very another’s poorly thought-out political ideology. unlikely to think: “The President wants a troop surge. He has outlined a number of compelling reasons why that’s a good strategy. Maybe pacifism is wrong.” 4 What Is Framing? We make our biggest communications mistake when we only talk to our supporters and forget to talk to the people we need to move to our side. The art of framing is the art of defining an issue to get the broadest possible public support. We do this by tying frames as broadly as possible to people’s existing belief systems and worldviews. The way you frame an issue answers the question, “What is this about?” Your goal is to frame the issue so it’s about something the majority of people agree with and care about. This normally means appealing to their deepest values. It also means your frames should rise above partisan politics, since partisan The Art and Science of Framing an Issue and Science of Framing Art The frames lose the support of half the American popula- but at least there’s common ground. Moreover, a tion—or more. You need to frame carefully and delib- bi-partisan policy immediately reassures both activists erately so you don’t accidentally evoke worldviews or that their differing views will be taken into account. At patterns of reasoning that shut down everything you a minimum, this way of framing the policy would leave have to say. each activist open to hearing more. Pretend that the reason you’re sitting on the sofa be- Political types spend a lot of time and money building tween a Birkenstock-wearing human rights activist and frames that resonate with people’s deeply held values a tight-collared, beeper-wearing social conservative is and worldviews. Good frames will help people see to get them to vote yes on a proposed welfare reform the issue in new and compelling ways.
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