Framing Effects: A Fractured
Paradigm
Shanto Iyengar
Prepared for 3rd International Summer School; University of
Milan - Department of Social & Political Studies
What is Framing?
 “… a dynamic, circumstantially-bound process of
opinion formation in which the prevailing modes of
presentation in elite rhetoric and news media
coverage shape mass opinion….”
 “Framing effects refer to behavioral or attitudinal
outcomes that are not due to differences in what is
being communicated, but rather to variations in how
a given piece of information is being presented (or
framed) in public discourse.”
Historical Perspective
 Originally defined as a “presentation” effect
in Tversky and Kahneman studies of
gains/losses
 People tended to be risk-seeking when asked
to choose between a sure loss and a
probabilistic loss, but risk-averse when the
same choice was applied to gains
Equivalent Frames: Kahneman-Tversky Paradigm
Imagine that the US is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual
Asian disease, which is expected to kill 600 people.Two
alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed.
Assume that the exact scientific estimates of the consequences of
each program are as follows:
If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved (72%)
If Program B is adopted, there is a 1/3rd prob that 600 people will
be saved, and a 2/3rds prob that no people will be saved (28%)
If Program A . . . 400 people will die (22%)
If Program B . . . there is a 1/3rd prob. that nobody will die and a
2/3rd prob that 600 will die (78%)
Semi-Equivalent Media Frames
 Communications researchers
adapted the framing paradigm to
news coverage – different “genres”
of news coverage proposed as
frames
Episodic versus Thematic Framing of Issues
 Episodic framing the dominant form of broadcast
news coverage – issues depicted as particular
instances: homeless person, single mother, laid
off worker as symptomatic of poverty, particular
criminal acts instead of overall trends in the level
of crime (Iyengar, 1991)
 Thematic framing embeds issues in some general
or societal context – historical trends in
unemployment or poverty; news accompanied by
expert analysis
 Effects of issue framing on attributions of
responsibility
 Episodic framing  dispositional attributions
(“blaming the victim”)
 Thematic framing  societal or structural
attributions
Framing as a Pattern or “Script”
 Scripts as narrative structures; the crime script
in local news – violent crime > non-violent
crime (Iyengar & Gilliam, 1999)
 Accompanied by visual cues suggesting race or
ethnicity of suspect
Race of Suspect Manipulation
Recall of Suspect’s Race in
Gilliam/Iyengar Crime Study
Impact of Crime Script
 People become more concerned about
crime
 People become more “punitive” in their
crime policy preferences
“Issue” Frames
 Alternative perspectives on policy
problems; immigration as a law
enforcement or economic growth
issue (Nelson, 1997)
 Issue frames are “emphasis” rather
than “equivalence” frames; this is the
crux of the problem with current
research
Competitive Frames
 In real world, parties and politicians engage in
strategic framing (“heresthetics”) of issues making
it inevitable that voters are exposed simultaneously
to multiple frames
 Chong & Druckman (2008, 2009) on effects of
exposure to multiple frames: under conditions of
synchronous exposure (exposure at one point in
time), the effects cancel out and participants fall
back on general predispositions as opinion cues
(also see Sniderman & Thereault, 2004)
Summary
 Communication researchers increasingly employ
operational definitions of the framing concept that embody
considerable differences in content across frames
(“emphasis” framing)
 The original concept of framing as a presentation effect
(“equivalence” framing) has largely been abandoned
The Problem with Emphasis
Frames
“Emphasis-based frames not only vary the perspective
or underlying dimension for considering an event (e.g.
freedom of speech in the case of some particular
dissenting group), but they also differ in several
other respects, In one of the more precise emphasis
framing studies, for instance (Druckman and Nelson,
2003), approximately fifty words were unique to each
of the competing “free speech” and “special interest”
frames.”
Non-Equivalence=Confounds
 The lack of equivalent content means
that any effects of exposure to the
frame cannot be attributed to
presentation per se
 More likely, effects reflect significant
differences in content
 Therefore, emphasis frames represent
messages; framing effects are no
different from persuasion effects
The Advantages of Visual Over
Semantic Frames
 It is time for framing research to
move away from emphasis frames
and towards equivalence frames
 Non-verbal, visual cues provide
ecologically valid equivalence frames
 Racial and gender phenotypes as exemplars;
visual representation of candidate’s ethnicity
and gender as a form of framing
 “It is possible to create alternative versions of a
picture that differ along a specific dimension,
but which remain identical on all other
observable dimensions so that any variation in
the audience response can be attributable only
to the manipulated dimension.”
The Case of Afrocentrism
 2008 Obama study – manipulated
Afrocentrism (phenotype) relatively
early and late in the campaign
Obama: 70-30 Eurocentric Morph
Obama: 70-30 Afrocentric Morph
Findings
 In February, the more Afrocentric
version of Obama elicited significantly
less support from White voters
 In October, however, the visual
manipulation had no impact at all
 Pattern suggests that facial cues are
more important in races where
candidates are little known
Immigration Study
 Appearance versus credentials in perceptions of
immigrants applying for citizenship (cultural
versus economic threat)
 Economic credentials defined according to
occupational skill (professional versus manual
laborer)
 Cultural credentials defined according to
nationality (Muslim/non-Muslim) and skin
color/morphing manipulations applied to different
ethnic groups represented in the immigrant pool
Politics of Immigration
Complexion Manipulation: Immigration Study
Rashid Siddiqui, applicant for work permit
Roberto Sanchez, applicant for work permit
Rajan Sivamurthy, applicant for work permit
Female Immigrants/Cultural
Threat Manipulation
Gender Phenotypes
Summary
“Over the course of the last two decades,
researchers in political communication have
proposed a diverse and often incompatible set of
conceptual definitions of framing. The resulting
operational confusion surrounding the construct has
made drawing broader inferences across different
studies all but impossible.”
 “We urge researchers to structure future empirical
work around the original characteristics of the
concept, i.e., variations in the mode of presentation
of a given stimulus, rather than manipulations of
the informational or persuasive nature of
messages.”