by Alexis Edozie
Definition:
How the act of using language in different ways when presenting information can affect how an audience perceives a certain issue or idea.
Description:
The concept of framing is significant because it can be used to study how language use affects human perception. The way a sentence or idea is phrased has the power to sway the audience’s opinion on an issue in different directions (ex. For vs. against). So, changing something as simple as a word or choosing to emphasize a specific phrase when explaining a topic can change how the public understands and/or feels about an issue. It is important to understand how language use does things to people because of how influential it can be towards public opinion. Not only does framing give people a persuasion method, it also gives them the ability to manipulate the beliefs of the audience through language. That is because once a person has mastered the art of deliberately making certain language choices in order to receive a specific reaction from the audience, they can use it to their advantage. This can result in framing being used as a ploy to garner support/attention for a cause. Consequentially, people that use framing as a weapon can also use it to reflect or challenge aspects of society like Doxa and hegemony.
Application:
The topic that I want to illuminate using the concept of framing is one of the main reasons people believe Trump won the presidential election in 2016: his firm stance on immigration and his ability to frame immigration as dangerous in order to gain support. I want to look deeper into this issue by using a YouTube video that contains the final presidential debate on immigration:
In the beginning, the moderator for the debate first acknowledges that Trump has already voiced he wants to build a wall to keep out immigrants that are coming into the US illegally. On the other hand, he states that Clinton “[has] offered no specific plan for how [she] wants to secure our Southern border”. The way that Clinton has been presented next to Trump already puts her at a disadvantage. This is because although Trump’s plans may be extreme, many would view having any plan at all to protect the country as better than having no plan at all. At this point, Clinton has been painted as indecisive and unclear about her intentions through the words of the moderator which would make viewers hesitate in choosing her to be president.
During this debate, Hilary Clinton (Democrat) and Donald Trump (Republican) are explaining why their own positions on immigration is right and their competitor’s is wrong. About thirty-five seconds into the video, Trump is allowed by the moderator to relay his opinions before Hilary which is crucial. With the ability to go first, Trump has the advantage of framing the issue of immigration in a way that the audience will side with him before Clinton even gets the chance to speak. In this analysis, we will be focusing on how both candidates use repetition in order to show their stance on immigration.
While watching the video, pay attention to the number of times that Trump uses a select number of words/phrases to talk about what should be done. His most repeated phrase is “[strong] borders” which he says about 15 times. This is in addition to how he mentions the wall 6 times and the drugs “pouring” into their country because of illegal immigration 6 times. The way he repeats important phrases makes it easier to ingrain the concept into the minds of the public. So, when Trump chooses to use and repeat these specific phrases so frequently, he is implying that the current institution of immigration is a “disaster” (which he says 3 times) the `public should not want to continue.
Using this type of language allows Trump to place a negative light on illegal immigrants in a way that pushes the public to relate it to how water “pouring” in can be dangerous and lead to a “disaster” if they do not have “strong borders”. Trump skillfully uses these terms to gain the support of the audience by framing such a large issue of immigration as something to be feared if not handled correctly. In other words, that he is the right one to fix these problems. So, regardless of one’s political party, it is safe to say that Trump successfully made a bold statement in order to push people to feel they needed him to protect them with the border.
Almost three minutes into the clip, Hilary Clinton is finally allowed to make her statement. The most common phrases that she used to state her stance on immigration were not said as frequently as Trump. She repeated “undocumented” as a replacement for the word illegal 7 times. However, the other repeated phrases were the most telling.
Clinton used the phrase “I don’t want” 3 consecutive times when talking about not wanting to separate families through Trump’s plans of deportation. She also said the phrase “I think” 4 times when talking about what she believed the country should do about immigration. This is where Hilary Clinton dropped the ball.
Her plans regarding the future of our country if she became president were stated as if it were her personal desires rather than what the country itself needed to happen. By using this language when describing her position, Hilary Clinton framed her vision as something necessary for herself rather than the well-being of the country. It would have been better for her to omit the personal pronoun and phrase her beliefs as a statement of fact so that viewers would be more inclined to listen.
This juxtaposition with Trump is made even more apparent because she was made to follow the very strong position of Donald Trump. When Trump connected her idea to that of “open borders” later in the video, she was in trouble. This is because Trump had already iterated the importance of strong borders to protect the people from the flood of dangerous people. So, with Clinton’s name attached to open borders, it is implying that she is going to allow these bad people to flow into the country.
Trump took advantage of framing by using the repetition of certain phrases to paint a picture of immigration that would push the people to vote for him out of fear. This caused Hilary Clinton’s idea of reformed border security to seem inadequate and lackluster in comparison.
So, Donald Trump was able to use framing in order to win the Presidential Election in 2016 though many thought it was impossible. In conclusion, the concept of framing is important to understand because it can reveal how language has the power to do many things.