Don’t Throw the Frame Out With the Bathwater
- Author(s)
- Ming Manuel Boyer, Sophie Lecheler, Loes Aaldering
- Abstract
Framing research has predominantly revealed detrimental effects of episodic news frames, including individualist blame attributions and political cynicism. However, such frames may also discourage group biases and impede motivated reasoning regarding identity politics. In two experiments (N = 815; N = 1,019), we test the effect of episodic frames on group-consonant attitudes through identity-motivated reasoning. The two studies produce mixed results. Episodic frames might decrease gender-motivated reasoning for women with weaker gender identities when news threatens their identity, but not for men or for women with stronger gender identities. The implications for journalism and democracy are discussed.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Government, Department of Communication
- External organisation(s)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Journal
- Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
- No. of pages
- 22
- ISSN
- 1077-6990
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990221097057
- Publication date
- 06-2022
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508020 Political communication
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/0af6948d-97c7-4c90-a568-c28131519f7e