Frames-as-Assemblages: Theorising Framing in Contemporary Media Networks

simon collisterRoyal Holloway, University of London

Full paper available. Email me at simon.collister@gmail.comTwitter: @simoncollister | www.simoncollister.com

introduction

• “continues to offer valuable insights into relationship between institutions, representations and audiences” – But does it?

• Media and communication theories need rethinking for networked age

• Framing theory needs reconfiguring to meet the demands of this new environment

The Context

hybridity & networks• Internet-enabled media

driving radical transformation of communications

• Much research weddedto an, arguably, outdated elite-mass media-audience paradigm (Davis 2007)

• Media “hybridity” proposed as conceptual escape route (Chadwick 2011)

the material turn• Media research influenced

by materialist turn in humanities and social sciences, viz. Deleuze & Guattari andActor-Network Theory

• Materialism can be infrastructure & physical space

• Terranova (2004) suggests representation is only half of communication

framing: limits of reductionism• Framing origins led to

macro-micro reductionism (Tewksbury & Scheufele 2009, 17)

• Reinforced by meta-theoretical models (Entman 1993; Scheufele 1999; D’Angelo 2002)

• Pre-defined media actors; linear communication processes & limited materialist considerations

The Argument

framing as organising principle

• Reese (2001; 2007) asserts framing is “bridging project”

• Dynamic “organising principle” that structures reality through “abstract principles”

• Networks of signifying moments that are always in the process of gaining or losing values

synthesising framing with assemblages

• Processes of assembly operating on two fundamental axes:1. Territorialization <>

Deterritorialization2. Material<>Expressive

• Offers dynamic and materialist framework to augment Reese’s notion of framing as gaining/losing organising value?

synthesising framing with assemblages

• Additional sub-processescontest stability, identify & durability of frames-as-assemblages

• Exterior relations connect assemblage parts creatingnon-linear emergence

• Coding stabilises identity & universal singularities structure enduring frames-as-assemblage’s “long-term tendencies”

analysing frames-as-assemblages

• “causal intervention” via inductive exegesis of discursive ‘flows’ & material infrastructures frames-as-assemblages

• Achieved via discourse analysis and participant observation

conclusions & directions?• Short-term: Analyse

mediated power by accounting for the material & expressive components territorializing and coding frames-as-assemblages

• Longer-term: identify & map ‘ideal types’ of frames-as-assemblages or process of production to gain insight into longer-term tendencies behind the hybrid media environment

Thanks. Questions?

simon collisterRoyal Holloway, University of London

Full paper available. Email me at simon.collister@gmail.comTwitter: @simoncollister | www.simoncollister.com