The State of Framing Research: a Call for New Directions

1. The State of Framing Research in Political Communication ............................................................................................................................................ The concept of framing embodies a context-sensitive explanation for shifts in political beliefs and attitudes. Framing defines a dynamic, circumstantially-bound process of opinion formation in which the prevailing modes of presentation in elite rhetoric and news media coverage shape mass opinion (Iyengar 1991; Scheufele 1999). This definition stands in stark contrast to other models of opinion formation that explain attitudes on specific issues or events as a function of longstanding and stable political predispositions (Campell et al. 1960; Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet 1948), of persuasive messaging (O'Keefe 2002), or of learning, information processing and other cognitive processes (Brossard, Lewenstein, and Bonney 2005; Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996). As a result, framing effects refer to behavioral or attitudinal outcomes that are not due to differences in what is being communicated, but rather to variations in how a given piece of information is being presented (or framed) in public discourse.