Contextual frames and their argumentative implications: A case study in media argumentation

Abstract

On the basis of a case-study based on the argumentative analysis of news in the press, this paper introduces and discusses strategic manoeuvring with contextual frames. Drawing on the linguistic notion of frame, I introduce the concept of contextual frame to refer to the news context, i.e. the background against which a certain event is presented as a piece of news. I argue that newspapers and journalists make use of contextual frames in the apparently neutral genre of news reporting to propose specific interpretations of the facts at issue, which become the basis for explicit comments and editorials. To show how this works, I analyse a case of newspaper coverage of a complex episode using the pragma-dialectical notion of strategic manoeuvring and the Argumentum Model of Topics (AMT) to analyse argument schemes. I show that, in the use of contextual frames, there is a prominent relation between presentational devices (the lexical choices which build up the frame) and topical potential; contextual frames provide the implicit material premises (endoxa) which are at the basis of argumentations through which newspapers interpret and comment the news.

Un estudio de los argumentos de autoridad utilizados por los padres con sus hijos durante las comidas

“…La estructura en Y (llamada así porque su forma se parece a la letra Y) en la Figura 1 será la herramienta gráfica adoptada para representar la reconstrucción de AMT. Los ejemplos de aplicaciones de las reconstrucciones de AMT mediante el uso de la estructura en Y se pueden encontrar en varios estudios dedicados a la argumentación en diversos contextos (véase, por ejemplo, Bigi, 2012;Bova, 2015;Greco Morasso, 2012):…”

The argument from expert opinion as other-oriented reference in disciplinary discussions

“…The Ystructure (so-called because its form looks like the letter Y) in Figure 1 will be the graphical tool adopted for representing the AMT"s reconstruction. Instances of applications of the AMT"s reconstructions by using the Y-structure can be found in several studies devoted to argumentation in various contexts (see e.g., Bova 2015dGreco Morasso, 2012;Palmieri, 2009;Pollaroli and Rocci, 2015): This argument is based on a maxim that is engendered from the locus from expert opinion: "If an expert figure said Y, then Y must be true". The reasoning follows with a syllogistic, i.e.…”

Media deliberation on intra-EU migration. A qualitative approach to framing based on rhetorical analysis

“…(Wiesman, 2011, p. 133) Consequently, rhetoric can provide an analytic framework to account for the discursive construction of framing in relation to situational exigencies such as genre, audience, and symbolic resources available for producing meaning in a certain context. Epistemologically, such approaches tend to adopt various constructivist paradigms (Carter, 2013, Van Gorp, 2010Van Gorp & Vercruysse, 2012) while disciplinarily, several tracks can be identified for their development: rhetorical criticism (Kuypers, 2010), cognitive semantics (Lakoff & Johnson, 1997;Lakoff, 2004), hermeneutics (Carter, 2013), cultural studies (Van Gorp 2007;Van Gorp & Vercruysse, 2012), discourse analysis (Pan & Kosicki, 1993), argumentation theory (Van Eemeren, 2010;Greco Morasso, 2012). Two important theoretical questions with relevant methodological consequences need to be addressed prior to undertaking an analysis of the frames: where to look for analytical categories in the analysis of framing and how to justify them in relation with both the aims of the research and the categories analyzed.…”