Weaknesses Of The Framing Analysis Approaches To The Assessment Of Media Content

Introduction

Political information processing focuses on human thoughts, emotions, and behaviours as they relate to political communication. It evaluates messages and cognitive processes on the part of recipients and considers how governments, politicians, or administrators frame and construct media messages to influence the attitudes, beliefs, and opinions of voters (Tichenor, 160). It focuses on the outcomes of such message frames as they relate to the construction of social reality. Thus, political information processing theory draws on social cognition research in an attempt to explain how and why political messages influence people in various ways (Blumler, 22).

Strengths & Weaknesses of Media Framing

The different features of coverage of news can lead a variety of consequences and effects for individuals, groups, and societies. One of the primary functions of news is to increase citizens' knowledge and awareness about a variety of issues and events. Indeed, frequently turning to the news does tend to have a positive relationship with learning, awareness of, and knowledge about candidates (during elections) and issues (McCombs, 176). The visibility of issues in the news and the different topics of the news agenda are important to understand the public agenda and the extent to which the news agenda affects the composition of topics considered important by others, known as “agenda setting.”(Potter, 116)

The relative attention to specific topics in the news is also important to understand political evaluations. Priming theory suggests that when most citizen make judgments about politics, they tend to “satisfice” and only consider a number of recent or readily available things. They thus rely on information that is easily brought to mind. Indeed news media and the coverage of politics may bring a variety of topics and evaluations readily to mind. These may then be considered particularly important for making political evaluations, including evaluations of political leaders and candidates (Potter, 118). The framing of news about politics, as discussed previously, also has important implications for how citizens understand and think about issues. The strategic news frame, for example, can contribute to a rather cynical perception of politics, while the conflict frame, for example, can make people engage more in a topic. Indeed, news coverage of politics can also mobilize citizens to turn out to vote in elections (and in some cases to abstain), and under some conditions news can also affect, for example, vote choice (McCombs, 178).

The effects of the news coverage of politics are viewed by some as negative and damaging to democratic processes, but in most instances there is a positive relationship between news exposure and attention to politics, on the one hand, and awareness and engagement in politics on the other. However, this relationship does not always exist in similar ways for different types of citizens, and some individuals may not benefit from these processes if they choose to selectively avoid political news in their media consumption (Tichenor, 159).

While a number of similarities cut across the news coverage of politics in different countries, media, and contexts, ...