Framing Theory

Framing theory holds that media coverage shapes public understanding not chiefly by telling audiences what to think about, but by how a story is presented: which aspects of an issue are made salient, which are left out, and what interpretation, causal story or moral judgment the presentation invites. Sociologist Erving Goffman introduced frame analysis in his 1974 book Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience, building on Gregory Bateson's earlier use of the term frame in the 1950s. Communication scholar Robert Entman gave the concept its most cited working definition in a 1993 journal article, writing that to frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation and/or treatment recommendation. Framing is distinguished from agenda-setting theory, which concerns what issues get attention at all, whereas framing concerns how an issue that has already gained attention gets presented.