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October 07, 2007
How the Media Frames Your View of the News...
 The news media can significantly affect how we perceive world news by the words they use to frame or describe the information they present. In particular phrases that are continually used with the same topic over time set a tone and expectation that predispose people to accept a specific point of view. We will join the local Stanford Alumni Club as we hear a panel discussion by distinguished media scholars and journalists (listed below) who will address the implications of framing choices for journalists and the public. Media frames can be defined as organized narratives that point to some perspectives or conclusions as more reasonable, predictable or moral than others. Alternative frames that can clearly change lives include framing the war in Iraq as primarily as a "war on terror" versus quite differently, as a "civil war". Other media frames that can clearly affect everyone include viewing the immigration debate through very different “enforcement” or “opportunity to work” frames, versus viewing proposals for universal health care through “government control” or “basic human right to health care” frames. Almost all media reporting contains “frames”. The framing perspective can add a subtle emphasis beyond traditional simple divisions of “objective” versus “biased” reporting. This panel will address questions about media frames, including: 1) How are media frames formed? What is the role of media owners, of journalists themselves, or of surrounding community norms and public opinion? 2) When a critical political or social issue is just emerging on the public agenda, how do journalists choose among “contesting” frames? What criteria do they use to emphasize some frames rather than others? 3) What difference does it make for the public whether or not journalists emphasize some frames rather than others? What are the consequences for public policy, political decision-making, and civic participation? Date/Time: Sunday, October 7, 2007 11:00 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. Ongoing Reception and Brunch in Upper Tarble (2nd Floor, Clothier Hall) 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Panel Session in Science Center, Room 101 Location: Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081 (directions below) Cost: Registration: On-line (by October 3), via: https://alum.mit.edu/smarTrans/user/Register.dyn?eventID=16362&groupID=158 For Questions: Lucie Wilkens, 610-444-3242 Directions: (See map at www.swarthmore.edu/visitordash/campus_map.pdf .) Panel: Dr. John Pollock, BA Swarthmore ’64, PhD Stanford '74, professor of communication studies at The College of New Jersey [panel chair] and author of Tilted Mirrors: Media Alignment with Political and Social Change: A Community Structure Approach; Dr. Joseph Cappella, professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, former president of the International Communication Association, and a former visiting professor at Stanford; Dr. Theodore Glasser, director of Stanford's graduate program in journalism and former president of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication; Victor Navasky, BA Swarthmore ’54, editor and publisher of The Nation, chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review and director of the George Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism at Columbia University; and Trudy Rubin, former Stanford Hoover Fellow and editorial board member of and foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Posted by webmaster at October 7, 2007 01:00 PM |