ABSTRACT
Framing is a ubiquitous phenomenon that pervades science, policy and the mass media. The concept of frames was appropriated in the 1970s by cognitive psychology (Minsky 1974), sociology (Goffman 1974) and linguistics (Fillmore 1975). Frames are schemata of interpretation for concepts. They help organise complex concepts by embedding them into a story line or connecting them stereotypically to certain actions or events. For example, the frame for a children’s birthday party can be characterised by presents, a birthday cake, lemonade and games like pot hitting or sack racing. A single word activates its defining frame, and also much of the system its defining frame is in (Lakoff 2010).
