Strategic Frame Analysis, Lecture by Dr. Brad Shore (Emory University)
Introduction
Last week (Nov 19, 2015), Dr. Brad
Shore visited the University of Alberta to give a lecture on
Strategic Frame Analysis, entitled “Frames of Mind”. The U of A
is presenting a course this upcoming February in this subject, so Dr.
Shore was presenting an introductory lecture to introduce potential
students to the theory and to drum up business for the Faculty of
Extension. Dr. Shore works with the Framework Institute of
Washington D.C. on this specialty, as well as teaching and
researching at Emory University (in Atlanta).
This blog represents my notes of Dr.
Shore’s lecture. No doubt I got some things wrong, so I certainly
won’t claim this to be an entirely accurate representation, though
I hope it captures the spirit of the talk.
Strategic framing is a way of
looking at how people think - the mental frames that they bring with
them, both genetic and culturally determined. It is
cross-disciplinary, incorporating findings from social sciences such
as anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology, and
economics. Professor Shore is himself a theoretical anthropologist.
As well as helping us to understand
communications, strategic framing can also help in forming and
communicating public policy (and marketing, of course). In terms of
public policy, the essential point is that the way in which issues
are framed can hugely influence the way in which issues are
perceived. For example, the framing of tax policy in terms of “tax
burden” is very different than “public investment”. This comes
as no surprise to skilled politicians and political advisors, of
course. But, besides those occupations, the subject is of interest
to teachers, public health professionals, marketers, and anyone
involved in mass media and communications, not to mention individuals
who want to understand how they are being nudged in certain
directions by all of the above. That would, of course, also include people involved in social media, especially professionals.
The cornerstone of the Frameworks
approach is known as Cultural Models Theory. The key point here is
that people bring their own cultural models to issues, cultural
models which are generally implicit or under the surface.
Understanding and working with these cultural models is therefore a
key to effective communications. The Frameworks approach therefore
crosses boundaries from the theoretical (“thinking about how we
think”) to the practical (understanding and influencing
communications in public issues).
How do we know what we know?
- The mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) or a camera. Two
prominent figures in this school are Aristotle and John Locke.
Sensory impressions fall on the mind directly, which it then
interprets.
- But who or what does the interpreting?
- Why do people see and interpret things so differently?
- But who or what does the interpreting?
- The mind is a filter. A prominent figure here is Immanuel
Kant.
- The mind plays a role in what it lets through.
- In neuroscience this is known as schema theory.
- Kant said we know the world through innate mental
categories.
- This is similar to Noam Chomsky’s theories about the human
brain having an innate facility for grammar.
- Bartlett, construction of memory:
- Cultural differences.
- Cognitive filters.
- Our culture implants these during development, they are not
necessarily innate.
- Cultural differences.
- Piaget
- These schema can be changed and reorganized during
development.
- These schema can be changed and reorganized during
development.
- The mind plays a role in what it lets through.
- We are not aware of how we think. Explicit knowledge is the
tip of the iceberg. Under that is tacit, “invisible” knowledge.
- We need to understand tacit knowledge and its sources to
improve our ability to communicate, to work with the tacit
knowledge.
- There are various levels at which models or schema are at
work:
- The universal level - for example babies recognize smiles
and quickly “know” their significance.
- The individual level - we create schema or models specific
to our own individual selves in our heads e.g. artists.
- The collective level - collective schema or cultural models.
There are some fundamental issues about the meaning of “culture”
and how it is transmitted.
- The universal level - for example babies recognize smiles
and quickly “know” their significance.
Culture and Models and Cultural Models
- Culture has a double existence. It exists in the mind (as
beliefs) and in the world as material objects and social
institutions. (I am reminded a bit of Karl Popper’s ideas of
World 1, World 2 and World 3).
- These cultural aspects in the world at large are implanted in
our minds as we grow and learn. They become a stock of models and
scripts (i.e. a set of rules about how things work).
- The mind both creates and reads models all the time,
analogously to how the brain creates neural networks all the time.
- There are many types of models. For example:
- Maps
- Objects
- Equations
- Musical notation.
- Maps
- We simplify the world via our models, though that doesn’t
mean that our models are simple minded.
- Models help us focus on different aspects of reality,
highlighting some dimensions and reducing others.
- This helps us to think of different things, to manipulate
reality and to imagine different alternatives.
- Models are durable, they persist through time. Without them
reality would be confusing, a parade of sensations. They provide
stability.
- They orient us in time, physical space, social space and our
interactions.
- Some models are diagnostic (not just medical models). They
help make tasks easier and assist in organizing knowledge.
- Some models conceptualize the world for us in high level
ways, such as ritual, art, theory and science.
- Some models are used in efforts to persuade. Among these
are:
- Iconic images.
- Body language.
- Various sounds (e.g. a siren) and smells (e.g. perfume) are
implicit in some models.
- Iconic images.
Language
- The most complex models are communicated via language.
- Language itself is a model or modelling engine.
- Language models at all levels.
- This varies from the simple to the complex:
- sound (hmm),
- syntax (grammar),
- tone (angry, sarcastic),
- metaphor,
- parable,
- story (possibly epic).
- sound (hmm),
- Language models at all levels.
- Story
- Stories are memorable.
- People pay attention to stories (“let me tell you a
story…” gets people to lean in).
- Stories have conventions. This allows us to say things and
teach lessons that might otherwise be not so well accepted (e.g.
children and bedtime stories).
- Stories help us to understand and make sense of things.
- Interestingly, expert knowledge is not usually communicated
as story (e.g. math or science, university lectures).
- Stories are memorable.
- Metaphor is at the heart of linguistic models, and is very
powerful. This isn’t just the high school definition of metaphor
(comparing one thing to another), but deeper metaphor that is
embedded in language.
- Language embeds metaphor so deeply that we are often unaware
of it.
- For example, we embed metaphors of space and distance to
understand time (we arrive “on time”, we “map out” our
schedule, we do things “in steps”).
- This helps us to grasp things via different
conceptualizations (e.g. the metaphor of a container for the mind
includes the notions that we “fall in” love, we “go out of”
our minds, we “go to pieces”, we “think out of the box”,
and so forth).
- Metaphors help us to reason, by replacing the abstract with
the less abstract (e.g. nebulous versus concrete, which are
themselves metaphors).
- “Language is metaphor all the way down”.
- Language embeds metaphor so deeply that we are often unaware
of it.
- Metaphor helps us to frame communication.
- Framing helps to change the conversation - i.e. change the
metaphor and you change how people see something.
- Learning as a weight (“heavy course load”, “a big
idea”) versus learning as a light (“a bright student”, “a
light went off”).
- Learning as a weight (“heavy course load”, “a big
idea”) versus learning as a light (“a bright student”, “a
light went off”).
Frameworks Institute and Framing
- Framing Analysis (Frameworks Institute) involves 5 steps:
- Examine the “lay public” model.
- Examine the “expert model”.
- Determine how they differ.
- Simplify communication, based on this knowledge.
- Reframe the conversation.
- Examine the “lay public” model.
- For further information, consult the Frameworks Institute
website:
- http://www.frameworksinstitute.org/
And here's an XKCD comic about framing; comic strip characters of
course “literally” live in frames – wow, talk about metaphor
overload.
And if you are interested in some unique cultural framing, check out “On the Road with Bronco Billy” which is just chock full of the stuff, as it is a detailed look at the long-haul truck driving culture, from the point of view of a ride-along by a office-bound professional.
Or, just think of it as a nice road trip story, for a mere 99 cents.
Amazon U.S. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon U.K. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
