Frame Analysis

Primary frame: Natural c.f Social
Goffman

Nested Frames
Minsky

Meta Frames
Dombos (2009)

Frames can be used to promote negative/positive image, Johnson (1995) persuade or be deliberately obtuse (Wilson 1990)

Object > "Problem"
Positive and Negative Framing

http://bristol.academia.edu/MHope/Papers/259680/Frame_Analysis_as_a_Discourse_Method_Framing_Climate_Change_Politics

Goffman, E.  (1979, 1984) Frame Analysis – An Essay on the Organization of Experience, 

Boston: North-eastern University Press.

Schön, D.A. and Rein, M. (1994) Frame Reflection: Toward the Resolution of 

Intractable Policy Controversies, New York: Basic Books. 

Framing

 Performatist framing serves to relate a lower state to a higher one, to stylize the possibility of transcendence.  This "framing" must not be confused with Derrida's frame or parergon. By contrast, the parergon is a spatially indeterminate line highlighting the endless problem of conditionality and not resulting in any sort of performative change (except, perhaps, further, temporally and spatially deferred reflexion on the nature of conditionality itself). More relevant than the parergon in this regard seems to me to be Gregory Bateson's concept of framing (Bateson 1972), which emphasizes not just the paradoxical nature of the frame but also its relation to psychological mechanisms prior to the linguistic sign; pertinent is also the sociological frame theory developed by Erving Goffman (1974), which offers, among other things, a typology of of frames as they appear in social reality. (back)

Anthropoetics 6, no. 2 (Fall 2000 / Winter 2001)

Performatism, or the End of Postmodernism

Raoul Eshelman

"Public Relations" - Ideology

Bernays  Journalism Public Relations : Pilger

Context "Breadth" and the movement to the Postmodern

Modernism/Positivism : Wide Context - Meta Narrative - Science

Phenomenology:  Narrow Context: Local Subjective Individual Perception Context

Postmodernism : Multi  Contextual? - Individual   Inter-Subjective,

Glossary of terms (add refs)

Context: wider environment of knowledge claim? (relates to closure)(Bryson)

Closure : Relates to  ontology, epistemology; pragmatic selection of "Knowledge" in the context of open systems, undecidability etc

(Postmodernism,  Jayaratna & D'arcy, Habermas)

Reification: association of state of identification (performative?) with specific form of consumption (product)

(Marx?)

Performative: concious choice of identification, c.f unconcious identification (inherited, manipulated)
(Austin, Butler)

Random Expressive Flow: allowance of a stream of expression (vocal/movement) without conceptual criticism

(Deleuze)

Ideology: Hidden assumptions inherent if narrative?

Narrative: Storyline...
(Jameson)

Meta Narrative: Overriding background narrative taken as true (historical?) context?

Meta Language: Higher level language that talks about object language(that assumes truth).

Ellul Jacques - Technology - Media

Ellul's commitment to scrutinize technological development is expressed as such:

“

[W]hat is at issue here is evaluating the danger of what might happen to our humanity in the present half-century, and distinguishing between what we want to keep and what we are ready to lose, between what we can welcome as legitimate human development and what we should reject with our last ounce of strength as dehumanization. I cannot think that choices of this kind are unimportant.[8] Ellul saw the power of the media as another example of technology exerting control over human destiny. As a mechanism of change, the media are almost invariably manipulated by special interests, whether of the market or the state. Using the term "propaganda" to address both political and commercial communication, Ellul wrote: “ It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale. The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because it creates a constant environment. Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society.[10] ” In all of this, Ellul continued to place his understanding of technology and its proper role in this present society in a context that recognizes a faith in the eternal. This allowed Ellul to propose a more explicit alternative to the technology of the technician than those provided by some of his contemporaries, such as Martin Heidegger. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul

Media Concentration and Minority Ownership

Media Concentration and Minority Ownership: The Intersection of Ellul and Habermas 

Authors: John O. Omachonu^a; Kevin Healey^b

^{Minorities comprise a tiny fraction of media owners, and continued media consolidation exacerbates existing disparities. This article examines this problem by integrating the work of Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Ellul. These theorists identify a common concern—described alternately as technicization and colonization—involving homogenization of content, loss of localism, and decreased ownership diversity. In different ways, each acknowledges the possibility that social action can make a difference. Habermas' discourse ethics provides a normative foundation for arguing on behalf of ownership diversity and policy reform. Though Ellul is skeptical of institutional reform, he offers a complementary vision of concrete action on the part of local, independent community groups. While their solutions are different, we argue that both are necessary. Media reform efforts must incorporate both Habermasian and Ellulian approaches by supplementing federal regulatory reform with independent grassroots activism. A combination of such efforts is essential to the movement's success.}

^{http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a912047679}

Wikileaks - Julian Assange at TED

Metalanguage:

In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about statements in another language which is called the object language. It can refer to any terminology or language used to discuss language itself: a written grammar, for example, or a discussion about language use. Very often expressions in a metalanguage are distinguished from those in an object language by the use of italics, quotes or being set apart on a line by themselves.


An embedded metalanguage, as its name suggests, is a language embedded in an object language. It occurs both formally and naturally. This idea is found in Douglas Hofstadter's book, Gödel, Escher, Bach, in his discussion of the relationship between formal languages and number theory: "... it is in the nature of any formalization of number theory that its metalanguage is embedded within it." (pg. 270). It occurs in natural, or informal, languages, as well—such as in English, where adjectives, adverbs, and possessive pronouns constitute an embedded metalanguage; and where nouns, verbs, and, in some instances, adjectives and adverbs, constitute an object language^{[citation needed]}. Thus, the adjective 'red' in the phrase 'red barn' is part of the embedded metalanguage of English, and the noun 'barn' is part of the object language. In the example, 'slowly running', the verb 'running' is part of the object language, and the adverb 'slowly' is part of the metalanguage.

An ordered metalanguage is analogous to ordered logic. An example of an ordered metalanguage would be the construction of one metalanguage to talk about an object language, followed by the creation of another metalanguage to talk about the first metalanguage, and so on.

A nested, or hierarchical, metalanguage is similar to an ordered metalanguage in that each level represents a greater degree of abstraction. However, a nested metalanguage differs from an ordered one, in that each level includes the one below. The paradigmatic example of a nested metalanguage comes from the Linnean taxonomic system in biology. Each level in the system incorporates the one below it. The language used to talk about genus is also used to talk about species; the language that is used to talk about orders is also used to talk about genera; and, so on, up to kingdoms.

Wikipedia

Inherent Creative Ability and Reification

"Are peoples ability to flow/be creative  reduced/limited by ( implicit assumptions used by media)/advertising messages which   (+ normalises passive consumerism (marginalises random expressive flow when sober?) + reifies creative activity and specific identifications onto forms of consumption via overt (celebrity) and subtle ( assumption) means?)


If so can this mystification be unpacked/deconstructed in the viewers mind by the use of the Context Frame?

Context Frame : Why?

"The history of PR is… a history of a battle for what is reality and how people will see and understand reality."
Stuart Ewen [1]

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power. We are governed, our minds moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind."
Edward Bernays [2]

Every organisation that interacts with other agencies may be said to engage in public relations. Organisations by and large wish to project as good an image as they can, and often wish to communicate a particular message. This applies as much to a small cooperative like Corporate Watch as it does to a large multinational like Dow Chemical. It is, by a broad definition, an ubiquitous and inescapable practice.

There is nothing essentially wrong in wanting to present one's own case in as effective manner as possible. However, in spite of frequent protestations to the contrary from the PR world, this is only a part of what modern PR does. There is a considerable body of evidence emerging to suggest that modern public relations practices are having a very significant deleterious impact on the democratic process. As this report will demonstrate PRs have often engaged in deliberate deception on their clients' behalf and have developed a deeply unhealthy relationship with the 'free press'. Furthermore, by giving vested interests the opportunity to deliberately obfuscate, deceive, and derail public debate on key issues the public relations industry reduces society's capacity to respond effectively to key social, environmental and political challenges.

www.corporatewatch.org.uk

Context Frame: Safari : Prototype 1

The "Context Frame" info is supplied in an address bar above the selected web page:

This is a non- operational prototype ... an interactive version could be created using a live scrolling  rss text feed from an independent  corporate infomation database accessed via company name via http address...