Episodic Framing

Although many people may like to think of America as a honest and moral nation, it is no secret that artifice has cemented itself as an indispensable skill, exploited by many to achieve their own ambitions. Artifice, characterized through the usage of cunning devices or expedients to deceive others, is often utilized by politicians and organizations to help push their own agendas. As illustrated by Chris Hedges in his social commentary, Empire of Illusion, “artifice” has emerged to become so ubiquitous and essential throughout American society, whether in business or the entertainment industry. Essential, in the essence that without it, people in any industry are more likely to be disadvantaged in achieving their personal goals. In today’s modern world, no area has seen more abuse of artifice than in the field of media and politics. Its common knowledge that newspapers skew reports to their own biases and politicians often tell half-truths to cover-up ulterior motives. Unfortunately, these politicians and media giants hold extremely influential positions in society, and their usage of artifice is extremely damaging to the integrity and accountability within the United States. As a result, the press as well as the general populace must utilize free speech to expose this behavior. Despite the complete immorality of the usage of artifice, such chicanery remains essential for success in media and politics.

On September of 2015, the image of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi went viral. “The toddler’s lifeless body on a Turkish beach had reverberated across the globe” (Parkinson & George-Cosh, 2015). Aylan’s family had “fled the brutal civil war in their native Syria and only attempted the boat crossing after Canada denied their application of admission as refugees. The image led to an astonishing outpouring of support for Syrian refugees” (Hein & Niazi, 2016).

In a general sense society derives much of their beliefs and indifferences from stories that are covered in the media. If the stories are being reported biased, how can we, as a society, see the whole picture? The author's purpose is to inform readers about the different biases that news and media sway by and to provide evidence that proves instances when these biases have weakened the validity of the reporter's story. "Journalist are like dogs-whenever anything moves, they begin to bark." (Gladstone, 2011/2013, P.25)

The power and consequently the responsibility of media, especially mainstream, is something that shouldn’t be underestimated. It often sets the agenda amongst the general public and is the reference point for the majority of the discussion surrounding it. For many, what they see and read in the media forms the basis of their opinions on most important topics. Despite warnings not to, many believe that everything they read in the media must be true.

There are newspapers (such as the “National Enquirer”) renowned for their fictitious (although admittedly attention-grabbing) headlines, yet we hardly hesitate to assume the information is fabricated. On the other hand, when our trusted news sources present their stories, many automatically assume the information is true, which is why “[e]rroneous reporting by established organizations is a bigger threat than

Falsehood and lying has been around for as long as humanity as lived it is part of human nature. Most who fall into such a treachery are mostly unaware of such falsehood through misinformation and thus fall into the clutches of such a situation in which a person has been lied to without prior knowledge. Now a days, it is quite easy to gain access of a plethora of information through the use of handheld devices and smartphones, especially news services. However not many know that such information can either be fabricated or manipulated in order to garner a certain response in order to suit the needs of the manipulator. Although superficially the Siren song by Margaret Atwood and The Fake news article of a Man whose mother had died due to

As the book “Framing American Politics” by Karen Callaghan and Frauke Schnell, they define framing as “selecting and highlighting some facts of events or issues, and making connections among them so as to promote a particular interpretation, evaluation, and/ or solution”. What framing means is the act of mass media to use journalism as a way to promote vicious and biases that can affect political decisions in people’s perception. On the other hand, sensationalism is also used to create or highlight a fake bubble of overhyped news. Framing and sensationalism have contributed to the creation of stereotypes affecting the moral of thousands of people. As Mitchell Stephens the author of “A history of News” states, “The golden age of political coverage that journalism critics pine over – the era when reporters concentrated on the "real" issues-turns out to have been as mythical as the golden age of politics”. In reality, even though mass media is the only resource for immediate news, they are not a truthful source because politicians are allowing this behavior because its main purpose is to gain revenue from the innocence

The media reveals information to its audience in such ways that people believe it to be the truth and they don’t often question it. But what people fail to realise is that there is always more to a story than what is just presented to you. Story tellers only tell one side of a story from their

Framing, described by Robert M. Entman, is the process by which reporters make “information more noticeable, meaningful, or memorable to audiences.” (Entman, 1993) Frames provide salience through “placement, repetition, and association with culturally familiar symbols.” (Entman, 1993) These frames, however, are manipulated to direct audiences to consider certain features or key points and to ignore or minimize others. (Kendall, 2011) That is not to say that what is excluded from the frame is insignificant. The “power of a frame can be as great as that of language itself.” (Entman, 1993) Conversely, information that is excluded from a frame speaks volumes as well. In the case of poverty, societal influences are most often ignored due to isolated, episodic frames.

If something is misrepresented, a person may only view one side of a topic, or may get biased information. The media is always presenting stories to an audience, however, it is hard to tell what is biased truth or whether it has been misrepresented and taken from context. The Simpsons episode ‘Homer Badman’ illustrates, through an exaggeration, how television and the media control society. When Homer gets accused of sexual harassment everyone instantly believes it because it was on television and they believe that whatever is on the television is right; just because it is on television doesn’t mean that it is the truth. The media are offenders of manipulating the truth to their benefit, to get good views of their show.

Framing falls under the umbrella of Agenda Setting; a theory that argues that mass media does not instruct us what to think, but rather gives us something to think about (Baran, 330). Episodic framing is a type of framing, which selectively zooms in on a certain aspect of an issue, rather than its entirety. The media influences how we see certain issues, as well as how important they are in our lives. This often leads to misjudgments because of the lack of information given, as it does not portray things from a broader

Furthermore, when reading an article or some other form of information, one should watch for bias as it can alter the source’s credibility. While discussing the topic of the recent ban on certain countries, an alleged former marine, Steven Gern informs people in a short video of the anger Iraqis have for Americans. He asked “As an American, if I went out in town right now, would I be welcome?'”(Stephens). He then claimed that they would “snatch [him] up and kill [him] within an hour. [He] would be tortured first, and after they were done torturing [him], [he] would probably be beheaded. It would go on video for everybody to see as an example” (Stephens).The speaker in the video does have a motive for bias as he says he is an American meaning that his purpose was to provide his viewers with a point, even if that requires disregarding facts. Taking this into account, it appears that Gern’s intention has been to rise angry emotions out of Americans. To conclude, false information is hidden in unnoticeable places and can be quite difficult to detect. Staying alerted when using any source is essential to overcoming the deception of any false information. Additional research, as well as avoidance of truthiness and bias will aid in the prevention of being

Throughout history, deception has been taking an important role in people’s lives. It has been used in many different circumstances by humans. Television, radio, newspaper, movies and magazines are part of our life and portray a percentage of false information that is meant to be believed by other people. Media main purpose is to communicate with people, but some humans switched this purpose and made a negative one out of it. A certain group of people use media to destabilize others picture and to send a wrong message. This unrealistic portrait made by people is an important issue faced by society.

Framing is one of the most problematic methods of presenting information to a wide scale audience. It has replaced flatout bias as a more subtle way to persuade audience members, thus leaving uninformed people unable to see the whole of the information without the presenter to completely disclose their values or beliefs. To the uninformed masses, this method removes most, if not all, hope for a straightforward news service. While framing is just a tool used in journalism, without any inherent evils attached to it, we still see it’s abuse from all sources of news. This abuse is what makes framing the most problematic methods of presenting information.

Reese (2007) defines a frame as an interpretative package that gives meaning to an issue. It seeks to make sense of relevant events and outlines important issues. Further, it emphasizes and excludes some elements of a topic, thereby giving the audience a way to understand the issue. As such, frames activate knowledge by stimulating stocks of moral and cultural values to create contexts. Frames confer salience to certain aspects of an issue (Tewskbury & Scheufele, 2009; D'Angelo, 2002). In so doing, frames define issues, diagnose causes, make moral judgments, and suggest remedies.