Introduction To Framing Part 2

Your story of the moment should be an instance of a large , simple
overarching narrative
INTRODUCTION TO FRAMING PART 2

MASTER NARRATIVES
REVIEW: WHAT IS A FRAME?
 “Frames are organizing principles that ware socially
shared and persistent over time, that work
symbolically to meaningfully structure the social
world. “
 Or , another way of thinking about them, they are a tool
kit of ideas that allow us to quickly understand our
world. When we are presented with some idea,
problem, situation, etc. elements of that situation can
trigger pre-established ideas, progress understandings .
FRAME DEFINED - 2
 A good framer makes sure that the words used,
the images used in presenting the situation trigger
the pre-established ideas and understandings they
want and not the ones they do not.
REVIEW: SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT THE FRAME
 Please take a second and read the material I have
handed out to you. For the sake of time,
concentrate on the boxed text.
 To spot the frame, ask yourself these questions:
 What is the problem?
 Who is causing the problem?
 Who is the victim?
 Who is the hero?
REVIEW: SEEING A FRAME
 On the ground of course, it means that the Madison Metropolitan
School District will not be educating any children today. For the
third day in a row this week, the union members of
Madison Teachers, Inc. [4], will stage a “sick out” today to protest
Governor Scott Walker’s (R) new budget, which would overcome a
$137 million budget deficit this year and a projected $3.6 billion
deficit over the next two years. Stacy Billings, a parent of two
Madison students, told the Wisconsin State Journal [5] that she
supports unions and opposes Walker’s proposal but is against a
teacher protest during school hours: “That’s not acceptable to me.
My tax dollars pay for the teachers to teach and not to
protest.”
SEEING A FRAME - 2
 What is really at stake in Wisconsin today (
and Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania tomorrow [1]) is the future of American
competitiveness. According to the latest Pew polling [14], the American people understand that unions
make it harder for America to compete globally. Government unions are simply a parasite on the
U.S. economy.
When President Obama came into office, he shielded government unions from transparency by ending th
eir reporting requirements to the Department of Labor
[15]. As a result it is impossible for the American people to know for sure how much of their taxpayer
revenue is being diverted into union coffers. But if you assume that each union member pays between
$500 and $750 annually, taken involuntarily directly from their paychecks, that means the government
union industry in Wisconsin is worth at least $100 million a year.
 If government employees want to voluntarily form associations and lobby the government for higher pay,
better benefits, and working conditions, that is their constitutional right. But they have no right to force
all employees to join their organization and take money from their paychecks every week.
Governor Walker’s bill fixes these problems: It affords government workers the right to quit their union a
nd keep their jobs; it requires unions to demonstrate their support through annual secret-ballot votes; and i
t stops state and local governments from collecting union dues through their payroll systems
[16]. These are common-sense measures that would increase worker freedom, restore power to
taxpayers, and make America more competitive internationally. Keep fighting, Governor Walker! The
American people can’t afford you to lose.
THE RIGHTWING NETWORK
 http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/15/alec/
 One key insight you should take from this history is that after the Goldwater defeat in
1964, visionary conservative leaders began to build a series of organizations and
networks designed to promote their values and construct systematic strategies for
sympathetic politicians. Some of these organizations are reasonably well known–for
instance, the Heritage Foundation, founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, a Racine native and
UW-Madison alumnus who also started the Moral Majority and whose importance to the
movement is almost impossible to overestimate–but many of these groups remain largely
invisible.
 The most important group, I’m pretty sure, is the American Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC), which was founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and (surprise,
surprise) Paul Weyrich. Its goal for the past forty years has been to draft “model
bills” that conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. Its website claims
that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce 1000 pieces of legislation based
on its work, and claims that roughly 18% of these bills are enacted into law. (Among
them was the controversial 2010 anti-immigrant law in Arizona.)
WHY THIS FRAMING IS STATEGIC/MULTI-LAYERED
 1, Attacks a key Democratic support group –both

funding and volunteers
 2. Attacks unions in general or lays the groundwork
for it.
 3. Can be carried out incrementally
 4. Undermines support for public school teachers –
softens up public opinion for all the privatized
alternatives.
 Overton window
A LOCAL EXAMPLE OF THIS FRAMING
 Dan Patrick said lay offs in public education could be
largely avoided if school districts had the ability to cut
teacher wages instead of positions.
 "The teachers associations, not the teachers, their
association lobbyists put into law that districts cannot
reduce salaries by even a dollar, so school districts don't
have the flexibility to say to their teachers we can keep
all of you if we could cut your salaries 1 or 2 percent
over the next couple of years until the economy turns
around," Patrick said.
A REFRAMING
 I believe in the right to freedom of association. Its in the constitution.
Workers have the right to organize and bargain about their wages and
their working conditions – its as American as apple pie. Workers have
died to protect this right.
 When workers are threatened with unfair wage and work rules, they
should speak up, especially when their employer is talking about
unilaterally tearing up their contracts.
 If tax-payers have to honor the contracts of wall street wheeler-
dealers, even while they are taking our bailout money, we darn well
have to honor union contracts.
 If the employer faces hard times, then negotiations is the way to go,
not union-busting .
SOME KEY DEFINITIONS:MYTH
 Myth
 1. a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical
events that serves to unfold part of the world view of
a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural
phenomenon b : parable, allegory
 2 a popular belief or tradition that has grown up
around something or someone; especially : one
embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or
segment of society <seduced by the American myth of
individualism — Orde Coombs>
SOME KEY DEFINITIONS: METHAPHOR
 Metaphors are comparisons that show how two
things that are not alike in most ways are similar
in one important way.
 a figure of speech in which a word or phrase
literally denoting one kind of object or idea is
used in place of another to suggest a likeness or
analogy between them (as in drowning in money)
SOME KEY DEFINITIONS: PARABLE
 a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or
teach some truth, religious principle, or moral
lesson.
 An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote
illustrating and teaching a moral lesson.
WHERE FRAMES/BRANDS COME FROM
 Master Narratives/myths:
 Reich’s master myth
 (1) The Rot at the Top, or stories of corruption in high places
and conspiracies against the public;
 (2) The Triumphant Individual, or hard work pays off more
than class privilege;
 (3) The Benign Community of neighbors helping each
other;
 (4) The Mob at the Gates, or how the society is coming apart
from an excess of democratic permissiveness.
PREAMBLE OF THE CONSTITUTION
 We the people of the United States, in order to

form a more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility, provide for the
common defense, promote the general welfare,
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves
and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.
THE ELEVATOR SPEECH – FROM MASTER NARRATIVE TO
PRACTICAL TOOL
 Example Elevator Speech

 I believe that all Americans should have a fair chance to realize
their dreams. I believe we are stronger when all of us are secure
in the knowledge that one bad fall, one serious illness will not
destroy all we have worked and saved for. I believe no one, not
our children, our elderly , or our families should be left to the
tender mercies of Big Insurance and Big Pharma. The Health
Care Reform Act, for all its faults, takes us closer to that America
than the do nothing plans of its opponents.

THE ELEMENTS OF THE ELEVATOR SPEECH
 “I believe in …” [followed by two strong progressive
value words for a total of 27 words to be delivered in
9 seconds]
 The ES is based on our specific framing of the issue
 We take words, ideas and images from the specific
framing of the issue.
 The specific framing is ,in turn, based in our master
narrative/framing of our position- our statement of
who we are and what we broadly stand for.
THE MESSAGE/SPECIFIC FRAMING
 America promises its people protection for their “life, liberty
and their pursuit of happiness.” This can be an empty
promise for the uninsured, especially children and working
Americans. We are the wealthiest country in the world yet we
rank 44th in infant mortality , 38th in life expectancy and last
in the cost of health care.(See note at end.) We also have the
highest number of uninsured, with Texas standing squarely at
the bottom among the states.

 This is NOT acceptable.
THE OVERALL NARRATIVE/BRANDING
 Americans are bound together by their adherence to the values laid
down by Our founding fathers and mothers. We are banded together
because together we can create a more perfect union. If we work
together , guided by our thirst for justice, seeking always the common
good , then our story is not ended, but just beginning.
 From DFH’s framing of the Healthcare Reform issue….
 We face a moment of great peril brought on by” the greed and
irresponsibility of some and the collective failure of us all to make hard
choices about our future.” These are the times that try men’s souls, that
sap their confidence, but we have chosen hope over fear, unity of
purpose over conflict and discord.
 Based on Obama’s campaign and inauguration speeches
YOUR FIRST TRY: FRAMING AT HOME
 Elevator Speech and First Framing Worksheet
 Your task: write an elevator speech in which you “frame” a
topic of your choice. Use the master frames of this lesson or
create your own.
 Health care
 Financial Reform
 School Finance
 The Budget/Deficit
 Unionism
 Uses and limits of the elevator speech
THE POLITICAL BRAIN – NEXT TIME
 The view of democracy that naturally flows from the dispassionate view of the mind is of a marketplace of ideas.
Parties and politicians who want to convince others of their point of view lay out the data, make their best
case, and leave it to the electorate to weigh the arguments and exercise their capacity to reason. To the
Western ear, and particularly to the American ear, this view of mind and politics seems eminently “reasonable.”
But this view of mind and brain couldn’t be further from the truth. In politics, when reason and emotion
collide, emotion invariably wins. Although the marketplace of ideas is a great place to shop for policies, the
marketplace that matters most in American politics is the marketplace of emotions. Republicans have a keen
eye for markets, and they have a near-monopoly in the marketplace of emotions. They have kept government off
our backs, torn down that wall, saved the flag, left no child behind, protected life, kept our marriages sacred,
restored integrity to the Oval Office, spread democracy to the Middle East, and fought an unrelenting war on
terror. The Democrats, in contrast, have continued to place their stock in the marketplace of ideas. And in so
doing, they have been trading in the wrong futures. I have it on good authority (i.e., off the record) that
leading conservatives have chortled with joy (usually accompanied by astonishment) as they watched their
Democratic counterparts campaign by reciting their best facts and figures, as if they were trying to prevail
in a high school debate tournament. They must have heaved a huge sigh of relief (but not on the air) when Al
Gore ran for president pretending that he had not co-presided over one of the most prosperous periods in modern
American history.
 Westen, Drew (2008). The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (pp. 35-36).
PublicAffairs. Kindle Edition.

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Introduction To Framing Part 2

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Your story of the moment should be an instance of a large , simple

INTRODUCTION TO FRAMING PART 2

 1, Attacks a key Democratic support group –both

 We the people of the United States, in order to

 Example Elevator Speech

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