Manipulation with Frames in the Time Weekly Special Report Issue (20 May 2011)b Cover Image

Manipulacja ramami w specjalnym wydaniu tygodnika „Time” z 20 V 2011 roku
Manipulation with Frames in the Time Weekly Special Report Issue (20 May 2011)b

Author(s): Mateusz Marecki
Subject(s): Semiotics / Semiology
Published by: Fundacja Pro Scientia Publica
Keywords: frame; Time; cognitive poetics; metaphor; Erving Goffman; Barrack Obama; Osama bin Laden; war on terror

Summary/Abstract: On 20 May 2011, the Time weekly published a special report issue in its entirety covering the killing of Osama bin Laden. Clearly, owing to its thematic coherence, the Time Special Report issue could be examined through the lenses of qualitative content analysis tools. This paper, howe- ver, applies Goffman’s Frame Analysis. Based on two basic assumptions: (1) that the “frame” amo- unts to the structured knowledge and (2) that the language of media reports is never neutral, but highly constructed, the paper argues that the examined Time issue is fundamentally built on three frames: the “war on terror” frame, the “hero” vs. the “enemy no. 1” frame and, finally, the “inde- structible USA” vs. the “primitive, yet promising Islamic countries” frame. In addition, drawing on the cognitive concepts of figure/ground organization and focalization, as well as the notion of metaphor, it investigates how the above distinguished frames are manipulated and modified.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 283-288
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Polish