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://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/dont-throw-the-frame-out-with-the-bathwater(0af6948d-97c7-4c90-a568-c28131519f7e).html