FRAMING OURSELVES ONLINE

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It matters how we frame the things we talk about—for example, describing a receptacle as “half-full” or “half-empty,” characterising a competitive result as a win for one side or a loss for the other, or discussing a contentious political issue in terms of private rights or public safety. Such communicative choices can set us up in opposition to one another—with good reason, since frames often reveal how speakers see the world. Building on the work of Elisabeth Camp, I examine how speakers’ frames express their perspectives, i.e., sets of principles that shape attitudes, emotions, and behaviours. Departing from Camp’s analysis, I argue that frames express perspectives only in certain contexts. I explain why they are especially likely to do so on social media, where users are attempting to build community through the content they post to decontextualising feeds. Such environments tend to reduce frames to mere symbols of allegiance, helping fuel a particularly ideological discourse online.

Written by Sarah A. Fisher