Do You Know When You've Been "Framed"?

I first became mindful about the concept of framing when I read the book Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff. Since then, I've become much more aware of word choices, imagery, what kind of information is shared and how, and what kind is left out, and so on. The way issues or opinions or information is framed can have a very strong influence on our perceptions.

Recently I was browsing my email when I came across a great example that illustrates the power of framing. In an e-news from YES!, one of my favorite magazines, I was immediately struck by the way they had framed a "point-counterpoint" issue about whether or not we should eat animals. I don't know whether the framing was intentional or not, but as someone who has a strong opinion about the issue of eating animals, it really stood out to me. As you can see in the image above, there are side-by-side teasers for two stories (one an interview, one an essay) about the issue of eating animals. Here are a few things that I observed from what you can see in the image above:

1. In the magazine itself (I'm a subscriber) and in the online versions, the two stories take up about the same amount of space. However, in the e-news, the "pro-eating animals" teaser comes first and is given more width space. The "pro-vegan" teaser is squeezed to the side.
2. The title of the pro-eating animals article offers a positive feeling (including the word "respect" in the subtitle, for example), while the pro-veg headline lays out an unequivocally negative statement.
3. The pro-eating animals teaser includes a professional photo and an image of a two-page spread, while the pro-veg teaser displays an odd, somewhat comical, and perhaps, to some people, even offensive (a nude woman) and distasteful illustration.
4. The longer summary of the pro-eating animals story includes appealing words like "healing" and animals as "co-laborers and "dance partners" and ends with a link, all in caps and bold red that includes the word "exclusive." Exclusive is one of those words that's always meant to entice. The pro-veg teaser gives the author of the article two sentences, and the only link is the title itself, which doesn't become apparent until you mouse over it.

My goal here isn't to pick on YES! (as I said before, it's one of my favorite magazines, and I respect a lot of what they do), nor is it to stir up debate about the issue of eating animals. This excerpt from the e-news is a terrific example of how our world (and thus our perceptions) are framed for us by others. When we use words like "collateral damage" instead of talking about civilian deaths; or when yet another action movie has a white guy as the hero, with the side-kick-of-color who serves as the comic relief, and a beautiful woman who needs to be saved; or when we paint challenging issues as either/or -- these are all types of framing that influence our thoughts, our opinions, and our decisions. Becoming more aware of framing can help us regain power over those thoughts, opinions, and decisions and ensure that they're ones that reflect our values.

~ Marsha

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