Framing youth issues for public support

The insights from one state illustrate the challenges of working to shape public will to favor support for out-of-school learning opportunities for youth ages nine to fifteen. With the leadership of the Frameworks Institute, local and national research and refraining concepts were used to develop a strategy to help advocates communicate the value of these learning opportunities in ways the public is less likely to dismiss out of hand. Messages reinforcing the developmental need to practice skills using the illustration of brain architecture and emphasizing the important role of community contribution on future leadership proved to be important aspects of the communication strategy.     

Framing public policy towards a public health paradigm for gambling

This paper examines the public policy value of looking at gambling from a public health perspective. The manner in which social issues are framed will either expand or curtail public policy debates. The existing and traditional frames for gambling (e.g. gambling as a matter of individual freedom, gambling as a form of recreation) fail to consider research on the social and economic impacts of gambling. Because a public health frame offers a broad viewpoint of society, it encompasses a number of social and economic impacts not considered in traditional frames. However, the existing gambling frames enjoy varying degrees of cultural, economic, and political support and, as a result, creating a higher profile for a public health framework will encounter a number of barriers. Research can play a decisive role in overcoming these barriers, as it has in a number of related fields (e.g., tobacco use, addiction and product liability, the epidemiology of AIDS). The paper concludes that research that identifies and quantifies the public health factors of gambling will substantially contribute to a public shift toward a public health frame.     

Framing effects and gender differences in voluntary public goods provision experiments

We examine whether there are any systematic gender differences in voluntary public goods provision experiments under the two different framing conditions—the positive-frame and the negative-frame. We find that: (1) there are significant framing effects in their contribution rates for both men and women; (2) there is no significant gender difference in their contribution rates under the positive-frame and (3) there is a significant gender difference in their contribution rates under the negative-frame. In fact, women are more generous in their contribution than men under the negative-frame.     

Getting past the impasse: Framing as a tool for public relations

J. Grunig, L. Grunig, and Dozier (1995) have proposed a two-dimensional model of public relations that combines the two-way symmetrical and asymmetrical models. They also have named strategies important for both public and organizational influence and called for research dealing with others. This article proposes frame analysis as such a strategy. To demonstrate the technique’s potential, the author employs framing to show how sex education can be promoted more effectively within public schools.Myra Gregory Knight is a doctoral candidate in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.     

Framing diversity: A qualitative content analysis of public relations industry publications

This qualitative content analysis used framing theory to examine how gender and diversity have been framed over the past decade in modern public relations industry publications. Findings revealed that diversity is most often set aside in its own issue or column and not integrated throughout the whole of the publications. Most articles about diverse populations mentioned primarily Hispanic or Latino populations and Blacks or African Americans. Diversity is framed as different, a journey or process, a language problem, a responsibility, inclusion, transforming workplace culture, enhancing the profession, resource intensive, power driven, needing to be justified, and impacting the bottom line. Disparities in public relations still exist among gender, racial, and ethnic groups with less power and must be addressed more fully in public relations professional publications.     

Framing political public relations: Measuring success of political communication strategies in Germany

The main goal of political public relations is the use of media outlets to communicate specific political interpretations of issues in the hope of garnering public support for political policies. This study elaborates on the question how successful political PR is at bringing its specific perspectives into the media. It uses the ‘framing’ concept to analyse the meanings and contexts of media coverage and political PR during the national debate on immigration in Germany between May 2000 and March 2002. The results show a high level of correlation between the preferred thematic and position frames of the political players and those in the press coverage. Yet, the media examined clearly did not have a passive relationship to PR. The findings indicate that journalists tend to use their power to alter PR messages when the communications from political players do not have a distinct focus and/or when the PR focuses were not among the (mainstream) aspects dominating the general political debate.     

Changing parameters of citizenship and claims-making: Organized Islam in European public spheres

Theory and Society -     

Framing of information on the use of public finances, regulatory fit of recipients and tax compliance

Information campaigns to increase tax compliance could be framed in different ways. They can either highlight the potential gains when tax compliance is high, or the potential losses when compliance is low. According to regulatory focus theory, such framing should be most effective when it is congruent with the promotion or prevention focus of its recipients. Two studies confirmed the hypothesized interaction effects between recipients’ regulatory focus and framing of information campaigns, with tax compliance being highest under conditions of regulatory fit. To address taxpayers effectively, information campaigns by tax authorities should consider the positive and negative framing of information, and the moderating effect of recipients’ regulatory focus.     

Evolving African American/White socioeconomic inequality in the public sector: A review essay

A sufficient body of research across disciplines (Sociology, Political Science, Public Administration) now exists to address the evolving dynamics of public sector African American/White socio-economic inequality across the post-1965 civil rights era. This review synthesizes this research, bringing together an unprecedented amount of evidence to support two primary points: (1) Public sector inequality has been fluid, that is, it has been characterized by varying levels of African American disadvantage. Though African American disadvantage has progressively increased in the post-1990 period, for now it retains its occupational niche status, and (2) The underpinnings of this fluidity of African American/White inequality are to a considerable degree a product of historically specific responses to inequality dynamics in the private sector that I classify as either compensatory or emulative. I discuss the importance of focusing on inter-sectoral connections in understanding evolving racial inequality in the public sector and conclude by offering directions for future research.     

Review essay

Manuale di Antropologia Visuale by Paolo Chiozzi. Milano: Edizioni Unicopli S.P.A.,1993. Lira 32,000 paper. ISBN: 88–400–0298–7

Sociologia Visuale by Francesco Mattioli. Torino: Nuova Eri/Edizioni RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, 1991. Lira 24,000 paper. ISBN: 88–397–0642–9.

Introduzione alia Sociologia Visuale by Contantino Cipolla and Patrizia Faccioli, editors. Milano: Franco Angeli s.r.l., 1993. Lira 45,000 paper. ISBN 88–204–8077–8     

Review essay

Crime and Punishment in South Africa, edited by JAMES MIDGLEY, JAN H. STEYN and ROLAND GRASER. Johannesburg: McGraw‐Hill, 1975 R10.50.