framing

framing

George Lakoff Terms which frame debate seek to limit the possibilities of discourse by setting the vocabulary and metaphors by which an issue can be discussed. In Lakoff's view, framing cannot be avoided—it is an inherent part not just of political discourse, but of literally all cognition, both conscious and unconscious—but the effort should be made to do it consciously [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(communication_theory)]

"Taxes are an affliction, proponents of taxes are the causes of affliction (the villains), the taxpayer is the afflicted (the victim) and the proponents of tax relief are the heroes who deserve the taxpayers' gratitude. Those who oppose tax relief are bad guys who want to keep relief from the victim of the affliction, the taxpayer. Every time the phrase tax relief is used, and heard or read by millions of people, this view of taxation as an affliction and conservatives as heroes gets reinforced." [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(psychology)]
 * Framing**, is the process of selectively using frames to invoke a particular image or idea. This idea is often associated with a pre-conceived cultural metaphor. Lakoff suggests, for example, that political terms such as "tax relief" are successful framing devices because the frame relates to the [|cultural metaphor] of something positive. One who brings about pain or distress is an afflicter, someone bad. One who relieves pain or distress is a hero. Lakoff notes the salience of this concept in affecting those who hear the frame:

Minsky paper, [|A framework for representing knowledge] (1974)

... the ingredients of most theories both in Artificial Intelligence and in Psychology have been on the whole too minute, local, and unstructured to account–either practically or phenomenologically–for the effectiveness of common-sense thought. The "chunks" of reasoning, language, memory, and "perception" ought to be larger and more structured; their factual and procedural contents must be more intimately connected in order to explain the apparent power and speed of mental activities.

Here is the essence of the theory: When one encounters a new situation (or makes a substantial change in one's view of the present problem) one selects from memory a structure called a //Frame//. This is a remembered framework to be adapted to fit reality by changing details as necessary.

A //frame// is a data-structure for representing a stereotyped situation, like being in a certain kind of living room, or going to a child's birthday party. Attached to each frame are several kinds of information. Some of this information is about how to use the frame. Some is about what one can expect to happen next. Some is about what to do if these expectations are not confirmed. We can think of a frame as a network of nodes and relations. The "top levels" of a frame are fixed, and represent things that are always true about the supposed situation. The lower levels have many //terminals//–"slots" that must be filled by specific instances or data. Each terminal can specify conditions its assignments must meet. (The assignments themselves are usually smaller "sub-frames.") Simple conditions are specified by markers that might require a terminal assignment to be a person, an object of sufficient value, or a pointer to a sub-frame of a certain type. More complex conditions can specify relations among the things assigned to several terminals.