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FoxNews, Framing, and "Politics and the English Language"

There's been a lot of research on this, with George Lakoff's work being the best: According to the report at Media Matters, in August of 2009 after Fox News' Sean Hannity used the term "public option," Luntz encouraged him to say "government option" instead. "If you call it a 'public option,' the American people are split," Luntz said. "If you call it the 'government option,' the public is overwhelmingly against it." As Lakoff notes: Language always comes with what is called "framing." Every word is defined relative to a conceptual framework. If you have something like "revolt," that implies a population that is being ruled unfairly, or assumes it is being ruled unfairly, and that they are throwing off their rulers, which would be considered a good thing...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on December 15, 2010 (boomark / email).