Thursday, September 9, 2010

Framing as used by FOX News

Fox News is an example of framing by the media. They present news as interpreted by those in the network.


Framing involves manipulating media to create associations with the issue or person mentioned. In the news, how a story is presented can have an effect on the audience. For example: on the subject of government spending, referring to the money that’s being used as “taxpayer dollars” as opposed to “government funds” gives citizens the frame of mind that they can influence government policies since they pay taxes. Meanwhile, simply referring it as “government funds” creates an impersonal connection to the government from the audience.

When Fox News presents a story, sometimes important information about the story is left out. When Sean Hannity reported on one of Obama’s speeches, he reported that many seats were empty before Obama’s speech began, but he never mentioned that the speech was an invitation-only event and only about 5% of those invited were absent. This is an obvious attempt to make Obama seem unpopular to Americans. Also, in the video of the speech Obama is quoted as saying “taxes are scheduled to go up substantially next year -- for everybody”, but the truth was the quote was deliberately cut off to make it seem that he planned the tax hike. What Obama really said was “Under the tax plan passed by the [Bush] administration, taxes are scheduled to go up substantially next year -- for everybody.” This was a blatant attempt by Fox News to portray Obama in a negative light.

Video on Fox News
Obama's actual speech
Information on the Event

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