2.1 The Framing and representation theory
2.1.2 Criticisms of the Framing and Representation Theory
Limitations of the Framing and Representation Theory pertaining to the research was that it mostly refers to worded text and merely alludes to other compository elements, whereas this research also endeavoured to extend that application to photos that were used in the online reports that were analysed as well should the selection framework allow for this inclusion. Also, there is a break in knowledge of frames used when reporting on the lesbian murders as ‘queercide’. In this sense, the theory seems to be most effective for the constructivist rather than the cognitive and critical paradigms (Hertog & McLeod, 2003). To bridge the limitations in knowledge on frames and representation as well as to identify the areas where the Framing and Representation Theory did not address the research problem, the works of Dietram Scheufele (1999), Werner Severin and James Tankard (2003), and Todd Gitlin’s An application for Framing Theory (2017) were also consulted. Scheufele (1999: 103) describes how
“frame building, frame setting, individual level processing of frames and a feedback loop from audiences to journalists” may be used to interrogate how reporters present information in their reports, while this research also interrogated Tankard’s (2001) view of framing and representation as a multidimensional concept that provides an alternative to measuring media content. Tankard (2003: 101) recognises that “frames hold the power to exclude voices, such as those supporting LGBTIQ issues, and downplay their arguments”, thereby proposing that the media’s tone, length of reports, references as well as any other ideological identifiers may be used to investigate the frames used in media reports.
Here, a frame is only useful if it determines whether audiences notice, understand and remember an issue, such as a photograph of the victim of ‘queercide’ that emphasises the LGBTIQ issue instead of using irrelevant or misleading ‘stock’ images. For example, in the article Another Khayelitsha woman murdered, dumped in communal toilet, Dolley (2016) argues that the photograph is a stock image of the SAPS insignia which does not provide any relevant or additional information to the content of the article other than the article mentioning that the police found the body.
Another criticism of the Framing and Representation Theory is that it is a “fractured paradigm”. What this alludes to is that other structures such as ‘schema’, ‘scripts’ and ‘themes’ may fulfil many of the same functions as frames (Zelizer, 2004). Barbie Zeliser (2004) also explains that Framing and Representation performs a second-level agenda setting in linking a theory, method or neither. For the purpose of this research, this research addressed these criticisms applying the Framing and
43 Representation Theory as an important pathway for thinking about language use and the ability to identify themes through categories and codes. This was done to highlight the use of language in news reporting as a communications discipline in which language is not necessarily an obvious target of analysis.
To explore how frames were used by the media to create a narrative of an issue in support of a normative ideology in newspapers, Jesper Falkheimer (2015) analysed 924 articles found in two of Norway’s major newspapers following the first two weeks after the terrorist attack in Oslo, Utöya, which resulted in the killing of 77 mainly young people on 22 July 2011. The issue Falkheimer investigated was whether newspapers favoured or counteracted the propaganda espoused by ‘the terrorist’. He found that coverage of the attacks was descriptive and focused on the perpetrator as an individual who was humanised and presented in a way that elicited empathy. It was also found that newspapers gave the terrorist political exposure without analysing the reasons for and the consequences of his actions on a socio-political level. This, Falkheimer argues, reveals how reporter bias influences the factual representation of information. The research also concluded that the news framing function depoliticised the terror attack by reporting on the attack as an action that was conducted by a lone, mentally unstable individual and not as a politically motivated terrorist linked to right-wing extremism (Falkheimer, 2015). The findings of Falkheimer’s (2015) research contributed significantly to direct this research on how selected online reports of ‘queercide’ could have affirmed the idea that media reports might frame an issue according to available information as well as reporter bias. It also affirmed that the manner in which online media frame and represent LGBTIQ issues focusing on ‘queercide’ needed to be investigated and explained to uncover underlying power relationships. Frames have indeed become a valuable parameter for discussing a particular event that is reported online because they focus on what will be discussed, how it will be presented, and even how it will not be represented (Altheide, 1997) after the event. An example of the outcomes of appropriate framing may be that ‘queercide’ will be treated and viewed as a public health and social awareness issue rather than a criminal justice or moral and ethical issue.
The manner in which frames and representations emerge from thematic discourse analysis was the focus of a study on how newspaper columnists framed Kenyan politics in the post-2007 election violence in that country. The attribution of responsibility frame was used to examine which one of the Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, or President Mwai Kibaki was to blame for the poverty, hunger and war experienced in Kenya. The focus of the study was to look at whether the two leaders were framed positively or negatively. The 90 opinion columns that were analysed within an 18-month period showed that the conflict frame was the most prevalent, followed by the international interest, attribution of responsibility, economic consequences and human-interest frames. More blame was directed at Kibaki and, as a result, “...he was framed more negatively than Odinga” (Ireri, 2015: 13-14).
44 Another study using both agenda-setting and framing was by Sung-Yeon Park, Xiaoqun Zhang and Kyle Holody (2012: 16) who examined the 2007 Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings. The study revealed insights that also applied to the agenda-setting and framing lens employed in this research in analysing ‘queercide’ in the media reports analysed. In the former study, agenda-setting revealed that where race was prominently featured in reports on the Virginia Tech shootings, it was almost completely absent from the Columbine shooting articles. Framing analysis discovered that “the media framed Virginia Tech shootings around the perpetrator’s race and generalised criminal culpability to his ethnic description. Ethnic and racial references were also regularly displayed in prominent positions” (Park, Zhang & Holody, 2012: 21-22). A similar hypothesis may be used to investigate reports on the murders of Caucasian lesbian victims compared to those of Black lesbian victims. The current research included a case study involving a White lesbians couple as it was deemed important to gauge how the media dealt with the issue by determining which elite frames dominated the coverage of ‘queercide’ involving aspects of moral, ethical, political and religious contention (Martin & Oshagen, 1997; Hertog &
McCleod, 2003) as the latter tend to sustain the major institutions of society. For example, if online media promote a religious frame on an issue, it will highlight religious institutions’ perspectives on the issue of ‘queercide’. In South Africa, even though the Constitution protects the rights of gay women, their lived experience is suppressive and often motivated by conservative religious views (Smith, 2017).
Thus, by selective determination, online media as information processors often allow some frames to emerge at the expense of others, and this supports the status quo through dominant frames. The hegemonic source selection of media also tends to be limited, which restricts the scope of information on an issue like ‘queercide’, thereby affecting the credibility of reports (D’Angelo, 2002).
This research needed to further understand the possible framing function of the media to create an
‘othering’ perspective when it comes to ‘queercide’ and its relationship with LGBTIQ discourse. This was deemed important as such discourse involves possible power relationships that in turn motivate how the issue is reported on while also extending the influence of the Framing and Representation Theory when photographs are included. With this goal in mind, a journal article by Athanasia Batziou (2011) that explores the photojournalistic practices of framing immigrants as ‘others’ in newspapers in Spain and Greece was consulted. Batziou (2011) explains how photographs are capable of transmitting ideologically rich messages in subtle ways and driving perception and interpretation of news. Batziou (2011) drew on the Framing and Representation Theory and content analysis to focus on images as texts loaded with socio-cultural meaning. Her findings revealed that certain techniques had been used to frame immigrants as ‘others’; for example, they were depicted in groups of people who looked different when juxtaposed to people from the local population around them. She explains that the practice of creating a symbol of ‘otherness’ assigned to immigrants not only reflects the dominant ideology of their
‘otherness’ in local societies, but that it also further confirms, fixes and consequently eternalises the perception of them as outsiders that cannot be incorporated into the local society (Batziou, 2011). What
45 was significantly utilised from Batziou’s (2011) study was the suggestion that the photographs used in the reports on ‘queercide’ could either have been used to ‘other’ the victims by including irrelevant, inappropriate or even incorrect details in the photographs used, or they could have been used to create a sense of empathy by including relevant, unique and emotive images of the victim(s) and their surroundings.