SAGE Journal Articles

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Michael J. Carter. The Hermeneutics of Frames and Framing: An Examination of the Media’s Construction of Reality. SAGE Open, April–June 2013; vol. 3, 2: 2158244013487915

Frames are organizing principles that are socially shared and persistent over time, and that work symbolically to meaningfully structure the social world. The study of framing has grown over the past decades as mass media has become more and more ubiquitous in society. People rely on media for information and access to local, national, and world events. This reliance on the media is important to address as news stories are essentially narratives and interpretations. By focusing on one aspect of an event and presenting it to an audience, media outlets construct reality. This construction operates by making certain aspects of stories more salient than others. This salience then “frames” an event and provides a reference point for viewers in which all subsequent information is judged upon. This article examines the current literature on framing and examines what techniques and methodologies are used by past and present sociologists and media scholars. Particular attention is given to the hermeneutics of frames, that is, how frames and framing influence individuals to interpret events in various ways.

Yngvar Kjus. Everyone Needs Idols: Reality Television and Transformations in Media Structure, Production and Output. European Journal of Communication, September 2009; vol. 24, 3: pp. 287–304.

The rise of digital media has generally been accompanied by audience fragmentation, but the trend of reality-TV has helped television enterprises around the world retain their audience’s attention. One obvious reason for this is reality-TV’s increased social interaction with the audience. Also important, however, are the rapidly evolving interactions between media sectors, companies, and departments on the production side of reality-TV. This article studies these interactions, demonstrating that the reality TV phenomenon in fact does not promote the status quo in commercial television but gradually reinvents its value chains in digital environments. Spectacular events and live content are more essential than ever for extending audience reach and developing new revenues. The article relates their production to developments in television tabloidization and commodification through a case analysis of the production of Idols in Norway.