Comunicazione e società : teorie, processi, pratiche del framing

This book discusses the powerful concept of ‘framing’, including its diverse uses and applications in various sociological and political science subfields, including the sociology of culture (cultural framing and micro-interaction frames), sociology of communication and journal¬ism studies (media frames and news frames), social psychology (decision frames and fram¬ing effects), political sociology and political communication (collective action frames, campaign and political frames, framing in deliberation). The book is thus intended as an intro¬ductory text to framing theories, processes and practices in social and political life, particularly those concerning communication. Having defined the frame as being a selective net of interconnected meanings which is characterized by two basic, coexisting dimensions - salience and connectivity - I show how the concept of frame has allowed scholars to go beyond the agenda-setting concept in mass communications and to use an analytically more complex tool than the rather simplistic ‘spin’ or ‘manipulation’. In so doing, I argue, a new challenge is posed to the journalistic myth of objectivity and the formal distinction between ‘news’ and ‘views’. Finally, the book presents and discusses the most widely used techniques of quantitative and qualitative research in the section on the methodology of frame analysis.