Skill Building: Learning about Framing
The particular communications theories that underpin our research and recommendations are the work of the FrameWorks Institute. FrameWorks has developed a new approach to communicating effectively about social issues known as strategic frame analysis. This groundbreaking approach to communications research and practice incorporates key concepts from the cognitive and social sciences that explore how people process information, with a special emphasis on the implications for addressing contemporary social problems.
Public Works is employing the techniques developed by the FrameWorks Institute to assist interested individuals and organizations in changing how they communicate about, and advocate for, public sector solutions to pressing social challenges. Whether you are engaged in tax and budget debates at the state level or working to foster business and government partnerships for smart growth and development at the community level, we want to help you shape public discourse and achieve the positive change you seek.
In each of our upcoming e-journals, we will take a look at one or more of the elements of strategic frame analysis and explore how these insights and techniques can be applied in your public communications efforts.
Importance of Framing
At Public Works, we have found that the framing techniques developed by our partners at FrameWorks are particularly relevant when trying to communicate about government and public programs and policies. Current public perceptions about government are fraught with negative stereotypes and problematic frames. Changing these dominant views, which create real obstacles for advancing public sector solutions to an array of problems, will require careful attention to how we communicate and discipline in all of our public messaging efforts. Fortunately, there are substantial, research-based approaches to improving public communications. Learning about these and practicing them in our everyday work is the challenge ahead.
The way people receive information about complex issues is shaped by multiple aspects of how that information is communicated. From the ordering of information and who is delivering the message to how numbers are used and whether the tone of the message is rhetorical or reasonable--all these aspects of communication help to frame discussions for listeners and readers and affect how they interpret information. Effective communications helps people understand what an issue is about and how they can be part of the solution.
Elements of a Frame
Our FrameWorks partners have outlined the key elements of effective framing. Paying attention to each of these is important. In different ways, each of these aspects of a frame tells us what the communications is ABOUT: signaling what counts and what can be ignored; "filling in" or inferring missing information; and ultimately influencing how the listener will decide about an issue. FrameWorks identifies these important elements of a frame as:
- Values
- Visuals
- Messengers
- Context
- Numbers
- Metaphors and Simplifying Models
- Stories
- Tone
In upcoming e-journals, we will explore these framing elements in detail, with examples of how they apply when communicating about government and the public sector.
Resources on Strategic Frame Analysis
The best source of background information about strategic frame analysis is the website of the FrameWorks Institute and in particular, their downloadable toolkit titled Framing Public Issues. This publication and other material on their website can give you ample background on the theories about framing and how they apply to communicating about public issues.