{"title":"Media power and politics in framing and discourse theory","authors":"Mette Marie Roslyng, Camilla Dindler","doi":"10.1093/ct/qtac012","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n Two widely applied entrances to critically analyze mediated political communication are framing and discourse theory. While media discourse and framing are used in close connection in academic literature, we examine how the approaches theorize media power and politics differently. Framing theory examines how issues are constructed interactively, represented in mediated form, and interpreted within an institutionalized policy sphere. Some framing studies critically examine structural or hegemonic power. However, the preoccupation with manifest interactions entails a diminished sensibility to systematic exclusion. Discourse theory provides a post-foundational conceptualization of politics as the political in which media discourses are antagonistic, contingent, and open to change. Discourse theory expands media power to include (subversive) positions beyond hegemonic politics. We argue that applying either discourse or framing theory in media studies has theoretical and analytical consequences and that theoretical sensitivity will strengthen the discriminatory power of framing and discourse theory as two distinct fields.","PeriodicalId":48102,"journal":{"name":"Communication Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Communication Theory","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac012","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
Two widely applied entrances to critically analyze mediated political communication are framing and discourse theory. While media discourse and framing are used in close connection in academic literature, we examine how the approaches theorize media power and politics differently. Framing theory examines how issues are constructed interactively, represented in mediated form, and interpreted within an institutionalized policy sphere. Some framing studies critically examine structural or hegemonic power. However, the preoccupation with manifest interactions entails a diminished sensibility to systematic exclusion. Discourse theory provides a post-foundational conceptualization of politics as the political in which media discourses are antagonistic, contingent, and open to change. Discourse theory expands media power to include (subversive) positions beyond hegemonic politics. We argue that applying either discourse or framing theory in media studies has theoretical and analytical consequences and that theoretical sensitivity will strengthen the discriminatory power of framing and discourse theory as two distinct fields.
期刊介绍:
Communication Theory is an international forum publishing high quality, original research into the theoretical development of communication from across a wide array of disciplines, such as communication studies, sociology, psychology, political science, cultural and gender studies, philosophy, linguistics, and literature. A journal of the International Communication Association, Communication Theory especially welcomes work in the following areas of research, all of them components of ICA: Communication and Technology, Communication Law and Policy, Ethnicity and Race in Communication, Feminist Scholarship, Global Communication and Social Change, Health Communication, Information Systems, Instructional/Developmental Communication, Intercultural Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Journalism Studies, Language and Social Interaction, Mass Communication, Organizational Communication, Philosophy of Communication, Political Communication, Popular Communication, Public Relations, Visual Communication Studies, Children, Adolescents and the Media, Communication History, Game Studies, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, and Intergroup Communication. The journal aims to be inclusive in theoretical approaches insofar as these pertain to communication theory.