The Constructionist Approach to Framing: Bringing Culture Back In

TLDR

The constructionist framing approach emphasizes culture by distinguishing event, media content, and frame, reconstructing frame packages, linking them to cultural phenomena, and accounting for interactions among sponsors, events, content, schemata, and frame stock. The article aims to integrate culture into the framing process within a constructionist paradigm and to develop a strategy for reconstructing frame packages. The authors present an elaborated framing model, compare it with priming and agenda‑setting, and discuss methodological implications for reconstructing frame packages.

Abstract

Abstract This article aims, within the constructionist paradigm, at integrating culture into the framing process. Four characteristics are important for this approach: the distinction between the event, the media content, and the frame; the explicit attention to the reconstruction of frame packages; the relationship between frame packages and cultural phenomena; and the interaction between frame sponsors, key events, media content, schemata, and the stock of frames. An elaborated framing model is presented, and, subsequently, the constructionist approach is compared with priming and agenda setting. Finally, the methodological implications are discussed, in order to develop a strategy to reconstruct frame packages. L’approche constructionniste au cadrage: ramener la culture Baldwin Van Gorp Department of Communication Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, Pays-Bas