Frames

Şule Yüksel Özmen, Trabzon University Faculty of Communication, Turkiye
syozmen@trabzon.edu.tr

Ledia Kazazi, University of Elbasan "Aleksandër Xhuvani", Albania
lediakazazi@gmail.com

Frames are cognitive structures or interpretive lenses through which individuals perceive, organise, and evaluate information about an issue or event. Communicators such as media outlets and political actors employ frames to emphasise specific aspects of a topic while downplaying others, thereby shaping how audiences understand and respond to issues. In the context of opinion formation, Entman finds that frames influence public attitudes by making certain considerations more salient. In linguistics, Fillmore defines frames as mental structures that organise conceptual knowledge, guiding interpretation and enabling comprehension of ambiguous or unspecified language. These structures support our ability to process information by activating relevant expectations and associations. Sociologist Goffman introduced the idea of frame analysis to explain how individuals structure their experiences to make sense of the world. He argues that people rely on social frameworks—collectively constructed patterns of interpretation—to organise events and assign meaning to them.

Scheufele presents that the media framing approach extends these ideas to mass communication, focusing on how media shape public understanding through frame-building and frame-setting processes. Journalists select certain aspects of reality and emphasise them through thematic or episodic angles, influencing how audiences interpret events. Framing thus plays a central role in the construction of news and political discourse. Media frames affect audiences in multiple ways: they can activate existing schemas (activation effect), reshape them (transformation effect), create new interpretive structures (structuring effect), or influence opinion formation (thought formation effect) claim Cappella and Jamieson.

Keywords: frame, framing, frame analysis, media effects

Related Entries: Framing Theory, Media Effects, Relativism, View

References:
Cappella, J. N., & Jamieson, K. H. (1997). The spiral of cynicism: The press and the public good. Oxford University Press
Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58.
Fillmore, C. J. (2020). Form and meaning in language: Papers on discourse and pragmatics. Center for the Study of Language and Information.
Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organisation of experience. Harvard University Press.
Scheufele, D. A. (1999). Framing as a theory of media effects. Journal of Communication, 49(4), 103–122.