Popular in

Arts and Humanities

Titus Quinctius Flamininus’ “Italian triumph”

McGill University Michael Fronda

Arts and Humanities

City Time: On Being Sentenced to Rikers Island

Independent Scholar David A. Campbell

Culture and Society

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

New York University Harvey Moltoch

Education

The Role of Education in Reducing Racial Inequality

University of Southern California Pedro A. Noguera

Law

Diversity and Social Mobility in the UK legal profession

Law Society I. Stephanie Boyce

Economics

Gender and Economics

University of California Santa Barbara Shelly Lundberg

The power of photographs in framing contests

View more insights in Social Sciences

View more figures from University of Edinburgh

View the page of John Amis

Read the Study

· Tools Cite Embed

The ways in which social and political issues are framed matters. John Amis discusses how the ideological stance of different media organisations will shape how they frame an issue.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 20, 2024

Workspace

Faculti AI is thinking...

< >

Summary
Related Studies
Faculti AI
Key Points
Key Quotes
Translate
Transcript

Export as PDF

This video video discusses the significant role of media, particularly images, in shaping public perception of issues such as migration. It highlights how media framing influences our understanding, creating echo chambers during events like Brexit and the Trump election. The case of Alan Kurdi’s tragic image is emphasized; it changed the narrative around the refugee crisis in the UK from one that framed migrants as threats to one of empathy and urgency for help.

The discussion also touches on the emotional and technical impact of such images. Emotional resonance can enhance or shift frames depending on the audience's predispositions, but this shift may be temporary. Although the media's framing may revert to previous narratives, there are lasting changes in the language used to describe migrants, moving away from dehumanizing terms.

Finally, the text argues for awareness among policymakers of the power images hold in public discourse, suggesting that there is a limited window of opportunity to impact narratives positively. Further, it calls for more research into how ideology, framing, and emotion intersect in media representation, particularly in the aftermath of powerful images.

Language:

Export as PDF

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.265 --> 00:03.205
If we look at the, the preponderance of issues

00:03.205 --> 00:05.605
that we've experienced, particularly over recent times,

00:05.825 --> 00:08.605
we can see the way in which media have have

00:08.605 --> 00:09.725
played a big influence.

00:10.065 --> 00:13.165
Uh, now we see, of course, the impact of social media,

00:13.705 --> 00:16.605
but previously more traditional media, newspapers,

00:16.895 --> 00:18.085
television, radio,

00:18.505 --> 00:21.645
and the way in which they're used by journalists,

00:21.785 --> 00:24.605
but also by other, actors to, to frame

00:24.825 --> 00:27.485
and shape the way in which we interpret information

00:28.105 --> 00:31.485
and thus shape our, understanding of particular issues.

00:31.625 --> 00:34.845
So the framing of issues certainly matters,

00:34.945 --> 00:37.205
and we can see it in a number of different ways.

00:37.785 --> 00:42.245
Uh, if you look at common understandings of particular,

00:42.605 --> 00:44.045
incidents, but then look at

00:44.045 --> 00:46.605
how they're framed differently in different outlets,

00:46.625 --> 00:48.725
we can see the impact that that has.

00:48.725 --> 00:50.445
Whether we go back to Brexit

00:50.745 --> 00:53.005
or we talk about, the Trump election,

00:53.465 --> 00:55.925
we can see the way in which different,

00:56.075 --> 00:59.205
outlets framed those issues differently to the extent

00:59.205 --> 01:02.645
that we, all of us seemingly lived in our own echo chambers.

01:02.865 --> 01:05.405
And then were, were very surprised when

01:05.405 --> 01:06.725
particular outcomes were there.

01:06.825 --> 01:10.205
And we were seeing very different understandings

01:10.205 --> 01:13.725
of events caused by the, the different framings,

01:13.825 --> 01:17.325
of outlets that were conveying what was, to all intents

01:17.325 --> 01:18.925
and purposes, very similar information.

01:19.065 --> 01:21.645
So, absolutely framing very much does matter.

01:22.585 --> 01:25.325
So photographs are, are quite interesting. I think.

01:25.545 --> 01:28.685
Um, one of the key things about photographs is,

01:28.705 --> 01:30.685
is they're obviously still,

01:30.825 --> 01:35.325
and they also are, almost like a permanent record,

01:35.505 --> 01:37.245
if you like, of a moment in time.

01:37.945 --> 01:39.285
And I think what we see

01:39.285 --> 01:42.645
and what we certainly found in the work that we did was that

01:43.275 --> 01:46.245
some photographs don't cut through, they don't resonate.

01:46.465 --> 01:48.405
And, and we talk, we were looking at the,

01:48.465 --> 01:50.445
as we'll come onto, I'm sure the,

01:50.445 --> 01:52.285
the desperate picture of Alan Ker.

01:52.405 --> 01:56.245
I washed up on a beach in Turkey, yet we'd seen pictures,

01:56.665 --> 02:01.005
of other dead people, including children,

02:01.385 --> 02:03.525
as a consequence of the migration crisis.

02:04.305 --> 02:07.165
But a still photograph carries a lot of weight.

02:07.545 --> 02:11.405
If, if you think back to the, the Turkey earthquake

02:11.985 --> 02:13.845
and the picture of,

02:14.945 --> 02:17.845
Mehana holding his daughter iMac's hand,

02:17.865 --> 02:19.365
he was just sitting there in the rubble.

02:19.365 --> 02:20.405
His daughter was dead.

02:20.865 --> 02:24.205
Uh, she's lying there covered and he's holding her hand.

02:24.385 --> 02:28.165
And that, that brought that emotional understanding

02:28.345 --> 02:31.245
of the impact of that event home in a way

02:31.245 --> 02:34.885
that I don't think video can, certainly in a way

02:34.955 --> 02:38.165
that captures something in its entirety,

02:38.825 --> 02:42.645
and it allows you to engage with it in a way that you can't,

02:42.645 --> 02:44.445
when the, the images are constantly changing.

02:44.835 --> 02:48.445
When you've got that static picture, you look at it,

02:48.625 --> 02:52.045
you consume it, as we talk about in the paper, you get

02:52.045 --> 02:53.405
that immediate resonance,

02:53.425 --> 02:55.925
but then you also get that delayed impact as well.

02:55.985 --> 02:58.725
And, and I think those things are conveyed in

02:58.725 --> 03:01.045
Still images in a way that they're not,

03:01.065 --> 03:02.325
in more dynamic ones.

03:03.155 --> 03:05.765
When we typically look at a photograph and,

03:05.785 --> 03:07.125
and a photograph's very,

03:07.225 --> 03:08.765
or any other still image,

03:08.765 --> 03:10.805
it can be a painting, a diagram.

03:11.385 --> 03:15.165
We, we immediately have a first impression of it,

03:15.365 --> 03:17.765
a first understanding of what that's conveyed.

03:17.985 --> 03:19.885
And of course, we filter that information

03:19.885 --> 03:22.405
through our own political understandings,

03:22.425 --> 03:26.005
our own situational understandings, our own personal biases.

03:26.985 --> 03:29.285
But we take that immediate first impact

03:29.705 --> 03:31.245
and that has a resonance with us.

03:31.305 --> 03:36.165
But then we are able to engage with that picture more fully,

03:36.785 --> 03:40.685
and we get, another set of cues that come out of

03:40.685 --> 03:43.285
that picture in a particular set of ways, depending on

03:43.285 --> 03:46.045
who we are, where we're at, our temporal

03:46.045 --> 03:47.845
and geographic proximity perhaps.

03:48.345 --> 03:50.245
And, and that's gonna influence the way in which we

03:50.245 --> 03:51.485
consume that information as well.

03:51.745 --> 03:55.365
And that might enhance our initial understanding in a, a way

03:55.365 --> 03:58.205
that supports our initial reading or it may challenge it.

03:59.105 --> 04:03.405
So our, i, our interest in that particular, case, we,

04:04.085 --> 04:05.165
I personally had a,

04:05.565 --> 04:07.685
a strong interest in migration in Europe,

04:07.825 --> 04:10.285
and 2015 was, was a pivotal year,

04:10.285 --> 04:13.445
and it was a horrific year in terms of the number of people

04:13.465 --> 04:16.285
who died, particularly those who died trying

04:16.285 --> 04:17.525
to cross the Mediterranean.

04:17.705 --> 04:19.325
Uh, there's various routes through Europe,

04:19.385 --> 04:22.165
as you're probably aware, and one of the most popular

04:22.265 --> 04:23.685
and one of the most perilous is,

04:23.705 --> 04:25.165
is across the Mediterranean.

04:26.425 --> 04:29.405
Um, and I had a doctoral student at the time, y Nina Klein,

04:29.405 --> 04:33.045
who's, who's gone on to be an academic at, in Amsterdam.

04:33.625 --> 04:35.485
Um, and we were talking about this,

04:35.585 --> 04:37.685
and she was very interested in migration as well.

04:37.705 --> 04:39.325
And so what we thought we'd do was,

04:39.825 --> 04:42.925
was look at the way in which the media represented

04:43.515 --> 04:44.645
that particular case.

04:44.645 --> 04:48.845
Because what was apparent with Alan Kurdi was that picture

04:49.435 --> 04:51.805
changed the debate in the uk and,

04:51.825 --> 04:54.765
and it went overnight, literally overnight.

04:55.305 --> 04:58.085
It went from being the dominant representation

04:58.305 --> 05:01.605
of people moving across Europe, where these are migrants,

05:01.605 --> 05:03.645
they're coming in, they're threatening our jobs,

05:03.645 --> 05:06.565
they're threatening our, kids', places in schools.

05:06.955 --> 05:09.645
They're challenging the number of,

05:10.165 --> 05:13.165
positions in doctors, in doctors that are available,

05:13.875 --> 05:16.485
overnight that change to these are a desperate group

05:16.485 --> 05:17.805
of people and we must help them.

05:18.505 --> 05:21.085
Um, and I was fascinated by that, that

05:21.265 --> 05:25.725
how could this one image transform the debate?

05:25.725 --> 05:27.365
Alright, it's, it's a terrible image.

05:27.405 --> 05:28.885
But as I said, we'd seen all sorts

05:28.885 --> 05:31.405
of terrible images coming, from that,

05:31.435 --> 05:32.965
from the movement of people across Europe,

05:33.025 --> 05:35.925
and that that really captured something in a way

05:35.925 --> 05:37.045
that as others hadn't.

05:37.065 --> 05:39.085
So I was very keen to try

05:39.085 --> 05:41.565
and probe what that was, why it worked in a particular way,

05:41.705 --> 05:44.565
and what impact did it have across a range of organizations.

05:45.365 --> 05:50.205
I think what happened was that there were two effects that,

05:50.205 --> 05:51.965
that this, this image had.

05:52.345 --> 05:55.525
Uh, the way in which we analyzed it, one was there was a,

05:55.665 --> 05:57.525
an emotional impact.

05:58.385 --> 06:01.325
So if you are in an organization that's already

06:02.075 --> 06:05.525
predisposed towards that particular frame,

06:05.875 --> 06:09.525
that supercharged the, the res, the, the resonance

06:09.525 --> 06:10.885
of the image,

06:10.905 --> 06:15.445
and the utilization of the frame, if you were,

06:15.715 --> 06:17.925
more predisposed to a different frame,

06:17.985 --> 06:22.165
so in this case a migrant frame, that photograph was able

06:22.345 --> 06:24.725
to shift the dominance of that frame.

06:25.465 --> 06:27.845
So it shifted it to a refugee frame.

06:28.625 --> 06:30.645
But what we found was that that was short lived.

06:31.265 --> 06:34.845
So you, you've got this, these two impacts.

06:34.865 --> 06:37.005
On the one hand, you've got a supercharging if there's

06:37.165 --> 06:39.285
sympathy already there, if there's a predisposition towards

06:39.285 --> 06:41.565
that frame on the other, it's capable

06:41.705 --> 06:44.285
of undermining the frame and shifting it and,

06:44.305 --> 06:45.685
and making it untenable.

06:47.185 --> 06:48.885
So we've got this emotional impact.

06:49.215 --> 06:51.205
We've also got this technical impact.

06:51.865 --> 06:55.685
And the technical impact really was a consequence of

06:55.785 --> 06:57.325
how the editorial staff

06:57.345 --> 06:59.965
and senior reporters within the news organizations

07:00.475 --> 07:03.045
interpreted their, their readers, reactions.

07:03.705 --> 07:07.685
So that that framing of people as being migrants

07:07.785 --> 07:11.005
who come in over to steal jobs, use Cameron's words,

07:11.005 --> 07:13.925
they were hoards of people coming over, trying

07:13.925 --> 07:15.125
to steal our way of life.

07:15.675 --> 07:17.965
That becomes untenable when you've got a 3-year-old

07:18.065 --> 07:19.245
boy dead on a beach.

07:19.385 --> 07:21.605
You can't, as a news organization, no matter

07:22.145 --> 07:24.765
how you have positioned the debate previously,

07:24.785 --> 07:26.805
you can't come out and use those, those words.

07:27.585 --> 07:30.845
And that's what we found. But also we found

07:30.845 --> 07:34.885
that very quickly the dominant frame within those news

07:34.885 --> 07:37.045
organizations came back and took over again.

07:37.665 --> 07:41.365
Uh, so the, the technical side of it, the need

07:41.365 --> 07:44.645
to play into your audience certainly led

07:44.645 --> 07:46.245
to a shift in the use of the frame.

07:47.185 --> 07:48.485
But what we found was that

07:48.485 --> 07:50.565
that changed very quickly afterwards.

07:51.025 --> 07:53.365
Uh, so they went back to using the old frame.

07:53.365 --> 07:55.925
So it's almost like a form of cognitive dissonance,

07:55.925 --> 07:58.125
if you like, that we're presenting something in a way,

07:58.505 --> 08:01.605
but it grates on the way in which we actually view the

08:01.605 --> 08:03.885
world, and therefore, as soon as we can, we change back

08:03.885 --> 08:04.765
because we're much more

08:04.765 --> 08:06.165
comfortable with that other viewpoint.

08:06.955 --> 08:08.885
What was also interesting though, was

08:08.885 --> 08:11.485
that even though they changed back, the language

08:11.485 --> 08:12.765
that was used shifted.

08:13.585 --> 08:17.525
So before there was a great deal of dehumanizing language.

08:17.625 --> 08:21.645
So I, I mentioned Cameron's comments there, the use of,

08:22.485 --> 08:23.925
hordes or swarms,

08:24.025 --> 08:27.445
almost viewing people like insects rather than human beings.

08:27.985 --> 08:30.525
Um, after the, the publication of the picture,

08:30.635 --> 08:33.045
even though they went back to using the migrant frame,

08:33.635 --> 08:36.165
they didn't go back to using such extreme language

08:36.225 --> 08:38.045
and such dehumanizing language.

08:38.545 --> 08:41.845
So there was a, a long lasting shift there, even though

08:42.505 --> 08:45.365
the frame went back to being used,

08:45.395 --> 08:47.285
used the migrant frame as it was before.

08:48.435 --> 08:52.005
What this really shows us is if you are in a policy

08:52.405 --> 08:55.605
position, you need to understand the power of images.

08:56.605 --> 09:00.045
I think that the, the way in which images are used is,

09:01.225 --> 09:04.205
and understandably so, is quite ad hoc,

09:04.205 --> 09:07.285
because people don't really understand why is it

09:07.285 --> 09:09.085
that one image cuts through and another doesn't.

09:09.505 --> 09:12.365
So I think what that suggests is that policy makers

09:12.465 --> 09:15.245
or those who are seeking to move a particular agenda,

09:15.595 --> 09:17.605
perhaps through a social movement,

09:17.705 --> 09:21.405
or perhaps through a policy intervention, need to be aware

09:21.545 --> 09:23.645
of when particular images become available

09:23.785 --> 09:25.245
and how they're gonna be received.

09:25.545 --> 09:27.885
And it's often very difficult to know that in advance.

09:28.385 --> 09:31.845
So it's being very, very, flexible

09:31.845 --> 09:34.885
and being able to move agilely on your feet so

09:34.885 --> 09:37.485
that you can take advantage of situations when they come up.

09:38.065 --> 09:40.845
The other thing to know is that often your window

09:40.865 --> 09:42.765
of opportunity is gonna be short-lived.

09:43.025 --> 09:45.485
So for a period of time that

09:45.535 --> 09:49.005
after the publication of Alan K's image on that beach,

09:49.955 --> 09:51.005
everybody's shifted.

09:51.785 --> 09:54.845
But we saw over time that people shifted back again,

09:54.915 --> 09:57.805
certainly the, those in the right wing organizations or,

09:57.805 --> 10:00.005
or right-leaning organizations, I should say.

10:00.425 --> 10:02.965
So you've got a window of opportunity, but it can be brief.

10:03.225 --> 10:05.045
So taking advantage of that

10:05.105 --> 10:07.845
to move a particular agenda forward can be important.

10:08.565 --> 10:11.445
I think also it's important to recognize, and,

10:11.465 --> 10:15.325
and we've been very bad at this, we don't look at the media

10:15.945 --> 10:18.165
in a graded form superficially.

10:18.305 --> 10:20.285
We understand that there's right-leaning media,

10:20.285 --> 10:21.325
there's left-leaning media,

10:21.425 --> 10:23.005
and we know that the interpretation

10:23.005 --> 10:24.085
of issues is gonna be different,

10:24.425 --> 10:27.565
but what we don't look at is the impact of that difference.

10:28.025 --> 10:30.885
And I think that's something that's become really apparent

10:30.885 --> 10:32.245
through this piece of research.

10:33.065 --> 10:35.845
In terms of future direction, I think that is something

10:35.845 --> 10:37.845
that we do need to understand more about is

10:37.845 --> 10:42.125
how does ideology interact with, frames, interact

10:42.125 --> 10:44.045
with emotions more broadly,

10:44.505 --> 10:47.045
the way in which emotions have an impact.

10:47.145 --> 10:50.165
So prior to our work, if you looked at most of the research,

10:50.425 --> 10:53.085
if not all of the research, that was published,

10:53.465 --> 10:56.405
it tended to say that emotional impacts are short lived.

10:56.995 --> 10:59.965
Well, what we see in this particular piece of research is

10:59.965 --> 11:02.885
that emotional impact does have a long lasting effect.

11:03.195 --> 11:06.885
Even in those right leaning, leaning organizations, we found

11:06.885 --> 11:10.125
that actually there was a long lasting effect in terms

11:10.125 --> 11:11.485
of the language that was used.

11:11.745 --> 11:15.445
And in terms of the, the emotional array we talk about,

11:15.545 --> 11:17.845
in the paper, the way in which that changed.

11:17.985 --> 11:21.685
So even though the frame shifted, the emotional array

11:21.865 --> 11:25.125
and the, the use of language really was,

11:25.295 --> 11:27.005
there was a long lasting effect there.

11:27.465 --> 11:30.845
But we don't know much about the, the longevity of that.

11:31.145 --> 11:34.085
And of course, we're looking at a very extreme situation,

11:34.545 --> 11:36.805
with a, a very particular image.

11:37.145 --> 11:39.685
It would be really interesting, I think, to know more about

11:39.865 --> 11:43.085
how these images play out over time in different sets

11:43.085 --> 11:46.565
of circumstances, how contextual understanding shift

11:46.585 --> 11:49.965
and the way in which, images are taken and our temporal

11:49.965 --> 11:53.685
and geographic proximity to them influences the, the impact

11:53.685 --> 11:54.565
that they have on us.

Faculti AI can make mistakes