Framing Immigration: The Independent, January 2022
Abstract
This study explores the framing of immigration in The Independent, a British centre-left online newspaper. Employing a qualitative approach, it analyzes 18 articles published between January 3rd and 17th, 2022. The analysis utilizes Van Gorp’s adapted frame matrix, which considers aspects like the type and role of asylum seekers alongside contextual factors.
The research reveals a dominant “victim frame” within the newspaper’s discourse. Articles consistently portray asylum seekers as vulnerable individuals fleeing violence. However, a few exceptions emerge, with one article notably aligning with the “intruder frame” by quoting a politician’s perspective.
Intriguingly, the study finds limited engagement with broader social and political contexts. While major news events like “Partygate” received coverage, their connection to immigration remained largely unexplored within the articles themselves. Similarly, the release of immigration data garnered significant attention, yet the articles presented it in isolation from wider political discussions.
These findings suggest that The Independent’s framing of immigration leans towards emphasizing the plight of asylum seekers, potentially at the expense of a more nuanced exploration of the complexities surrounding the issue. The limited engagement with contextual factors further raises questions about the newspaper’s approach to presenting a well-rounded perspective on immigration within the contemporary British landscape.
Keywords:
#Framing #Immigration #Asylum #Discourse #Analysis #Independent #Victim #Qualitative #Newspaper #Reporting #Journalism #Media #Conservatives #Tory #Migration
Introduction
This research essay looks at 18 articles appearing in The Independent online-only newspaper between 3 January and 17 January 2022. It seeks to briefly explore the overall frames that the newspaper uses for stories on immigration, migration and asylum seekers. The research began with an attempt to define framing before moving on to explore the context of these news articles and the framing matrix used. This research essay will tend towards a simplified qualitative approach, closer to mixed methods, applying ‘soft’ numbering to the articles in question, with quotations as ‘evidence’. After explaining the framing methodology and the context, this research essay will lay out the results and a short discussion by way of conclusion.
Definition of Framing
This essay uses an underpinning conceptual framework which is based on Kaufman’s [1] contextual definition of framing, as well as Gitlin’s [2] ‘new left’ critique, and Entman’s more specific definition that allows for a breadth of application[3]. For the full definition, please see Appendix I.
Methodology and Context:
Baldwin Van Gorp pioneered in this area through the study of immigrant framing in Belgian media [4]. An adapted version of Van Gorp’s frame matrix will be applied to the newspaper articles examined in this study [5].
This study, however, is much narrower, examining just eighteen articles (see Appendix II) from one British newspaper, the Independent. The Independent is considered a centre-left newspaper [6] and self-reportedly liberal [7]. How liberal and centre-left could be debated because of the online-only [8] newspaper’s ownership. The newspaper is owned by Evgeny Lebedev [9], the son of a former KGB officer [10], and a close friend of former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson [11], who also appointed Mr Lebedev to the House of Lords [12].
Context
For contextual framing, the 18 articles in question were initially put together into a timeline alongside major ‘events’ in British Politics and public life. The first article is from 3 January 2022, and the last is from 17 January 2022. During this time, Covid-19 [13] and the over 150,000 deaths resulting [14], as well as the rise of a new variant of the coronavirus were the largest and most dominant news stories. Boris Johnson and the Prime Minister’s office of Number 10 Downing Street came under attack for a number of parties held in Downing Street during lock-down restrictions imposed by the government [15]. Downing Street made an official apology to Her Majesty the Queen on 14 January 2022 [16]. The government also lost in the High Court, which ruled their ‘VIP’ programme for awarding contracts during Covid-19 was illegal [17]. Another, and perhaps, less relevant story that grabbed headlines of the first seventeen days of January 2022, was that of Prince Andrew’s legal woes regarding the accusations of sexual assault against him in the United States and the loss of his titles and military roles [18].
The most significant events regarding immigration and migrants during January 2022, were the first Afghanistan refuge family being given indefinite leave to remain [19]; the release of immigration data for the third quarter of 2021 [20]; and the government’s desire to ‘ease’ rules surrounding immigration for Indian citizens, as part of a post-Brexit trade deal [21].
The Van Gorp framing matrix, has therefore been amended (see Table 1, below) to include reference to these significant events, to see if the articles are framing contextually and/or with reference to other prominent news stories. A further adaption was the removal of visuals as a category, as the articles were collected using Nexus, which does not include the images from news articles.
Articles have been carefully read to categorise their key concepts, coded and marked according to the above frame matrix. Examples of instances of ‘victim’ or ‘intruder’ were counted to give a quantitative approach. The Lexical and Metaphor/Stereotype categories have been used to inform the results and discussion but have not been fully presented in the results.
Results and Discussion
On the first seven categories of Van Gorp’s matrix, each article was marked as either subscribing to the victim frame, the intruder frame or neither of the frames; the results of articles conforming to the frames are presented clearly in Table 3 below.
It should be noted that whilst a particular article might have the type of asylum seeker as a victim, it could have the role of the asylum seeker as an intruder. Van Gorp’s frame descriptors defined this type of determination as seen in the matrix table. An example of this ‘difference’ is Article 18 [22]. We can see evidence of this in various phrases of the article. The firm in question describes the role of the asylum seeker as active; this line from paragraph three of the article is a clear example:
“Seefar is behind multilingual websites including “On The Move” and “The Migrant Project”, which claim to “enable migrants and potential migrants to make informed decisions”.” [23]
The ‘priority’ of the quotation and the lower placing of opposing views (deeper) into the article suggests these migrants are more active than passive. Around halfway through the same article, we see the following paragraph:
“Appearing to pose as non-profit organisations, Seefar’s websites focus on “the risks of irregular migration” and encourage people to use “safe and legal alternatives” — without giving details of how to claim asylum or apply for resettlement in the UK…” [24]
The highlighting of the failure to include details on how to claim asylum in the UK is evidence that the article sees the refugees according to the ‘broad interpretation of the definition of the UNHCR’ and also as the problem definition and problem source being ‘violent persecution’ in the latter case, and ‘how to receive refugees’ in the former, problem definition category.
Overall, very few articles had juxtaposing frame sections within them — most were very clearly describing the Victirm-Frame, based on Van Gorp’s matrix. Article 2 [25] ‘veered’ away from its use of the ‘Victim Frame’ in the problem source and policy solution. Article 4, [26] also used an Intruder frame with regards to the Role of Asylum-Seeker, Problem Source, and Responsibility — whilst remaining Victim-Frame for the other four categories of the Matrix. Article 5, [27] did not mention or refer to asylum-seekers at all, so this went entirely into the ‘Neither-Frame’ category. Article 8, [28], is from the Voices section of The Independent and was not so focused on immigration — however, it talked about them in two paragraphs, and this was deemed sufficient to judge it to have taken a Victim-Frame approach in regards to Type of Asylum-Seeker, Role of Asylum-Seeker, however, beyond that, it was impossible to judge for Problem Definition, Problem Source, Responsibility, Policy Solution or Moral & Emotional Basis. The only article to take an entirely Intruder Frame approach was article 12 [29]. It is worth, noting, that Article 9 [30], is an international news story, written by a United States News-wire service. It has not been ‘relevatised’ to the UK context, and so are unlikely to see it bring in UK Events, however, it is entirely in keeping with the Victim-Frame.
Article 18 alluded to the government contracts court case loss and Afghani refugees and whilst not talking about immigration data, it did talk about financial data, as did Article 17 [31]. Our contextual links appeared 11 out of the 18 articles:
Direct references to the contextual links were few. Article 8 referenced COVID-19, but this was a very general opinion piece, and the reference was not related to immigration. There was a hint in the phrase ‘slower processing not more cases’ [32] that may or may not be a reference to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; it is known that other government offices, such as the passport office, are still struggling to return to pre-pandemic service levels in terms of processing [33]. No articles directly referenced the high court ruling on the ‘VIP’ lane for COVID-19 pandemic acquisitions. References could, however, have been made to this when it was reported that the government had lost another case [34] and one case in which they won [35], whilst a third [36] was about a government contract (regarding refugees, not COVID-19).
Two articles referred to the lockdown parties in Number 10 Downing Street. Article 2 sees the government’s announcement to bring the military in to deal with migrants crossing the channel from France to England as a distraction from the scandal known as Partygate [37]. Article 8 [38] is an opinion piece, and the migrant issue is only tangentially related to the lockdown parties at number 10 — primarily as the writer appears to believe that the Partygate scandal will ‘bring down’ Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. There were no articles referencing the stories of Prince Andrew in relation to immigration, and this is logical; it would probably take a conspiracy theorist to link the two issues.
References to Afghanistan obviously appeared in Article 18[39] but not in relation to the aforementioned contextual family. Article 16 [40] was two days before the Government press release on the family; however, they were part of the scheme mentioned [41]:
“But a scheme to resettle 20,000 Afghans directly from the region has not yet started, while government figures show that only 1,171 refugees were granted protection through resettlement schemes in the year to September.” [42].
There are ten articles directly referencing and relating to the government’s immigration data release; these ten articles are, 4 [43]; 6 [44]; 7 [45]; 10 [46]; 11 [47]; 12 [48]; 13 [49]; 14 [50]; 15 [51]; and article 16 [52]. Some of these were written before the release of quarter 3 data, but they referenced the previously released quarter 1 and quarter 2 statistics. Article 9 [53] references immigration data from the United States of America. Articles 17 [54] and 18 [55] reference financial data connected with migrants and immigration, such as:
“Choose Love, a celebrity-backed funder that has been providing smaller charities in northern France with financial support since 2015, has just withdrawn the bulk of this funding, citing “significant challenges” since the Covid-19 pandemic began. In 2021, the groups received a total of £600,000 from Choose Love, and they must now find alternative funds to meet this gap.” [56].
Only three articles mentioned Brexit — these are articles 5[57], 8[58], and article 16[59]. Articles 5 and 8 did not mention Brexit in the discussion of immigration, asylum seekers or migrants; article 16, gave us the government’s position on migration through EU countries:
“The government changed its immigration rules in January 2020 to allow people who travelled through safe third countries to be declared “inadmissible”, but has not struck any returns agreements with EU countries to replace a deal lost in Brexit.” [60].
Discussion
Regarding lexical choices, The Independent tended to use quotation marks to clarify that the information they were relaying came from somebody else; however, there should be sceptical suspicion that the statements are often ones The Independent wished to emphasise from fuller contextual quotations, such as in Article 1:
“Judges found that a “heresy about the law” had originated among Home Office officials…” [61].
The vast majority of the articles used the victim frame of the Van Gorp matrix. Though some articles use elements of both. The article [62] most avidly using the intruder frame did so by reporting the words of Jacob Reese-Mogg, a politician; in this regard, it is an anomaly in The Independent’s framing of immigration and does not appear to represent the ‘settled’ view and frame usage of the newspaper. The use of quotations on half-quotations, as if to emphasise opinions, may indeed be part of the newspaper using a form of short-hand scepticism to give their own viewpoint.
The contextual placing of the articles is rather narrowly defined as being either political or immigration focused — such as the release of the immigration data, which was covered in ten articles. This tells us that The Independent could be seen to be removing the issue of asylum seekers from the larger social and political contexts at the current moment each article was written about.
Citations
[1] ‘Frames, Framing and Reframing’.
[2] The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Making & Unmaking of the New Left, para. 3.
[3] Entman, ‘Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm’, 51 & 52; Nelson, ‘Issues Framing’, 190.
[4] ‘Where Is the Frame?: Victims and Intruders in the Belgian Press Coverage of the Asylum Issue’.
[5] Ibid., 491.
[6] Sirhan, ‘Language Use in the Reporting of the “Conflict”’, 65.
[7] ‘How the Eagle Spread Its Wings’.
[8] ‘The Independent Becomes the First National Newspaper to Embrace a Global, Digital-Only Future’.
[9] ‘Independent Titles Sold to Lebedev Family Company’.
[10] ‘Evgeny Lebedev: I Am Not Some Agent of Russia’.
[11] Harding and Sabbagh, ‘Boris Johnson and Evgeny Lebedev: A Decade of Politics, Parties and Peerages’.
[12] Waterson, ‘Johnson Peerage for Lebedev Crowns Mutually Beneficial Friendship’.
[13] ‘Covid: Lincolnshire Hospitals Declare “critical Incident” over Staff Shortages’; ‘COVID: UK Records 218,724 Cases and 48 Deaths in Latest Daily Figures’; Mundasad, ‘UK Survey Suggests 1.3 Million Have Long Covid’.
[14] Morton, ‘Covid: UK Records More than 150,000 Deaths’.
[15] ‘100 Invited to Downing Street Garden Lockdown Drinks’; Brand, ‘Email Proves Downing Street Staff Held Drinks Party at Height of Lockdown’; Clarke et al., ‘As It Happened: Boris Johnson Apologises for Lockdown Drinks Party’.
[16] Young, ‘Downing Street Apologises to Queen over Lockdown Parties’.
[17] Siddique, ‘Use of “VIP Lane” to Award Covid PPE Contracts Unlawful, High Court Rules’.
[18] Coughlan and Casciani, ‘Prince Andrew to Face Civil Sex Assault Case after US Ruling’; Bekiempis, ‘Prince Andrew Fails in Bid to Dismiss US Sexual Abuse Lawsuit’; ‘Prince Andrew Loses Military Titles and Use of HRH’; Quinn and Davies, ‘Prince Andrew Loses Military Roles and Use of HRH Title’.
[19] UK Government, ‘First Family Resettled under Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme’.
[20] Immigration, ‘Immigration and Protection Data : Q3 2021’.
[21] Clinton, ‘UK Ministers Eager to Ease Immigration Rules for Indian Citizens’.
[22] Dearden, ‘Article 18 — Government Gave £700k to Firm Telling Afghans Not to Flee before Taliban Takeover’.
[23] Ibid., para. 3.
[24] Ibid., para. 9.
[25] Cowburn and Bulman, ‘Article 02 — Senior Tory Says Plan for Military to Take Charge of Channel Crossings Operations “Massive Distraction”’.
[26] Churchman, ‘Article 04 — Sudanese Man in His Twenties Dies Trying to Cross English Channel’.
[27] James, ‘Article 05 — Brexit Lorry Flow System to Cause Disruption on M20 Motorway for a Year’.
[28] O’Grady, ‘Article 08 — The next Tory Leader That Labour Would Fear Most’.
[29] Lynch, ‘Article 12 — Rees-Mogg: France Is Safe for Refugees — except Those Who “Don’t like Garlic”’.
[30] AP News, Spagat, and Torrens, ‘Article 09 — Families Separated at Border Now Fear Extortion Attempts’.
[31] Bulman, ‘Article 17 — How Charities Are Plugging Gaping Gaps in Support for Refugees in Calais’.
[32] Dearden, ‘Article 16 — Channel Boat Crossings Tripled in 2021 as Government’s “chaotic Approach” to Asylum Seekers Blamed’.
[33] Calvert and Calder, ‘The Wait for a New Passport Has Surged from Three to 10 Weeks since 2021’.
[34] Dearden, ‘Article 01 — Channel Boat Migrants Face “illegal Entrant” Deportation’.
[35] White, ‘Article 03 — Windrush Descendant Loses High Court Battle with Home Office over Status’.
[36] Dearden, ‘Article 18 — Government Gave £700k to Firm Telling Afghans Not to Flee before Taliban Takeover’.
[37] Cowburn and Bulman, ‘Article 02 — Senior Tory Says Plan for Military to Take Charge of Channel Crossings Operations “Massive Distraction”’.
[38] O’Grady, ‘Article 08 — The next Tory Leader That Labour Would Fear Most’.
[39] Dearden, ‘Article 18 — Government Gave £700k to Firm Telling Afghans Not to Flee before Taliban Takeover’.
[40] Dearden, ‘Article 16 — Channel Boat Crossings Tripled in 2021 as Government’s “chaotic Approach” to Asylum Seekers Blamed’.
[41] UK Government, ‘First Family Resettled under Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme’.
[42] Dearden, ‘Article 16 — Channel Boat Crossings Tripled in 2021 as Government’s “chaotic Approach” to Asylum Seekers Blamed’.
[43] Churchman, ‘Article 04 — Sudanese Man in His Twenties Dies Trying to Cross English Channel’.
[44] Bulman, ‘Article 06 — Man Dies in Channel as 33 Are Rescued from Small Boat’.
[45] Drummond, ‘Article 07 — Sudanese Man Died Trying to Cross English Channel — French Authorities’.
[46] ‘Article 10 — Home News in Brief’.
[47] Giordano, ‘Article 11 — Group of 66 Migrants Become First to Cross English Channel in 2022’.
[48] Lynch, ‘Article 12 — Rees-Mogg: France Is Safe for Refugees — except Those Who “Don’t like Garlic”’.
[49] Drummond, ‘Article 13 — English Channel Crossings: Girl in Pink Onesie among First Arrivals of 2022’.
[50] Drummond, ‘Article 14 — Record Year Sees More than 28,300 People Cross English Channel to the UK’.
[51] Bulman, ‘Article 15 — Fears for Calais’s Displaced Thousands after Charity Cuts’.
[52] Dearden, ‘Article 16 — Channel Boat Crossings Tripled in 2021 as Government’s “chaotic Approach” to Asylum Seekers Blamed’.
[53] AP News, Spagat, and Torrens, ‘Article 09 — Families Separated at Border Now Fear Extortion Attempts’.
[54] Bulman, ‘Article 17 — How Charities Are Plugging Gaping Gaps in Support for Refugees in Calais’.
[55] Dearden, ‘Article 18 — Government Gave £700k to Firm Telling Afghans Not to Flee before Taliban Takeover’.
[56] Bulman, ‘Article 17 — How Charities Are Plugging Gaping Gaps in Support for Refugees in Calais’.
[57] James, ‘Article 05 — Brexit Lorry Flow System to Cause Disruption on M20 Motorway for a Year’.
[58] O’Grady, ‘Article 08 — The next Tory Leader That Labour Would Fear Most’.
[59] Dearden, ‘Article 16 — Channel Boat Crossings Tripled in 2021 as Government’s “chaotic Approach” to Asylum Seekers Blamed’.
[60] Ibid.
[61] Dearden, ‘Article 01 — Channel Boat Migrants Face “illegal Entrant” Deportation’.
[62] Lynch, ‘Article 12 — Rees-Mogg: France Is Safe for Refugees — except Those Who “Don’t like Garlic”’.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
‘100 Invited to Downing Street Garden Lockdown Drinks’. BBC News. 11 January 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59930733.
AP News, Spagat, and Torrens. ‘Article 09 — Families Separated at Border Now Fear Extortion Attempts’. The Independent. 11 January 2022.
‘Article 10 — Home News in Brief’. The Independent. 6 January 2022.
Bekiempis, Victoria. ‘Prince Andrew Fails in Bid to Dismiss US Sexual Abuse Lawsuit’. The Guardian. 12 January 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/12/prince-andrew-case-proceed-latest-ruling-virginia-giuffre.
Brand, Paul. ‘Email Proves Downing Street Staff Held Drinks Party at Height of Lockdown’. ITV News. 10 January 2022. https://www.itv.com/news/2022-01-10/email-proves-downing-street-staff-held-drinks-party-at-height-of-lockdown.
Bulman, May. ‘Article 06 — Man Dies in Channel as 33 Are Rescued from Small Boat’. The Independent. 15 January 2022.
— — — . ‘Article 15 — Fears for Calais’s Displaced Thousands after Charity Cuts’. The Independent. 5 January 2022.
— — — . ‘Article 17 — How Charities Are Plugging Gaping Gaps in Support for Refugees in Calais’. The Independent. 4 January 2022.
Calvert, Alana, and Simon Calder. ‘The Wait for a New Passport Has Surged from Three to 10 Weeks since 2021’. The Independent. 7 February 2023. https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/passport-waiting-time-10-weeks-b2277518.html.
Cammaerts, Bart, Brooks DeCillia, and João Carlos Magalhães. ‘Journalistic Transgressions in the Representation of Jeremy Corbyn: From Watchdog to Attackdog’. Journalism 21, no. 2 (3 February 2020): 191–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884917734055.
Churchman, Laurie. ‘Article 04 — Sudanese Man in His Twenties Dies Trying to Cross English Channel’. The Independent. 14 January 2022.
Clarke, James, Emma Owen, Adam Durbin, Becky Morton, Doug Faulkner, Heather Sharp, James Harness, et al. ‘As It Happened: Boris Johnson Apologises for Lockdown Drinks Party’. BBC News. 12 January 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-59958872.
Clinton, Jane. ‘UK Ministers Eager to Ease Immigration Rules for Indian Citizens’. 1 January 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/01/uk-ministers-eager-to-ease-immigration-rules-for-indian-citizens.
Coughlan, Sean, and Dominic Casciani. ‘Prince Andrew to Face Civil Sex Assault Case after US Ruling’. BBC News. 12 January 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59871514.
‘Covid: Lincolnshire Hospitals Declare “critical Incident” over Staff Shortages’. BBC News. 3 January 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-59858887.
‘COVID: UK Records 218,724 Cases and 48 Deaths in Latest Daily Figures’. Sky News. 4 January 2022. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-uk-records-218-724-cases-and-48-deaths-in-latest-daily-figures-12508999.
Cowburn, Ashley, and May Bulman. ‘Article 02 — Senior Tory Says Plan for Military to Take Charge of Channel Crossings Operations “Massive Distraction”’. The Independent. 17 January 2022.
Dearden, Lizzie. ‘Article 01 — Channel Boat Migrants Face “illegal Entrant” Deportation’. The Independent. 17 January 2022.
— — — . ‘Article 16 — Channel Boat Crossings Tripled in 2021 as Government’s “chaotic Approach” to Asylum Seekers Blamed’. The Independent. 4 January 2022.
— — — . ‘Article 18 — Government Gave £700k to Firm Telling Afghans Not to Flee before Taliban Takeover’. The Independent. 3 January 2022.
Drummond, Michael. ‘Article 07 — Sudanese Man Died Trying to Cross English Channel — French Authorities’. The Independent. 14 January 2022.
— — — . ‘Article 13 — English Channel Crossings: Girl in Pink Onesie among First Arrivals of 2022’. The Independent. 4 January 2022.
— — — . ‘Article 14 — Record Year Sees More than 28,300 People Cross English Channel to the UK’. The Independent. 4 January 2022.
Entman, Robert M. ‘Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm’. Journal of Communication 43, no. 4 (1993): 51–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x.
‘Evgeny Lebedev: I Am Not Some Agent of Russia’. BBC News. 11 March 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60707584.
Feinberg, Matthew, and Robb Willer. ‘From Gulf to Bridge: When Do Moral Arguments Facilitate Political Influence?’ Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 41, no. 12 (2015): 1665–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215607842.
Giordano, Chiara. ‘Article 11 — Group of 66 Migrants Become First to Cross English Channel in 2022’. The Independent. 5 January 2022.
Gitlin, Todd. The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Making & Unmaking of the New Left. Berkeley, California, USA: University of California Press, 1980.
Gorp, Baldwin Van. ‘Where Is the Frame?: Victims and Intruders in the Belgian Press Coverage of the Asylum Issue’. European Journal of Communication 20, no. 4 (2005): 484–507. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323105058253.
Harding, Luke, and Dan Sabbagh. ‘Boris Johnson and Evgeny Lebedev: A Decade of Politics, Parties and Peerages’. The Guardian, 21 October 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/21/parties-politics-peerages-boris-johnson-evgeny-lebedev-friendship.
‘How the Eagle Spread Its Wings’. The Independent. 18 June 2022. https://www.independent.co.uk/subscribe/our-story.
Immigration, UK Visas and. ‘Immigration and Protection Data : Q3 2021’. Gov.uk, 2022. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-and-protection-data-q3-2021.
‘Independent Titles Sold to Lebedev Family Company’. The Independant. 25 March 2010. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/independent-titles-sold-to-lebedev-family-company-1927436.html.
James, Liam. ‘Article 05 — Brexit Lorry Flow System to Cause Disruption on M20 Motorway for a Year’. The Independent. 15 January 2022.
Kaufman, Sandra, Michael Elliott, and Deborah Shmueli. ‘Frames, Framing and Reframing’. Edited by Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Beyond Intractability. Boulder, Colorado, USA: University of Colorado, 2003. http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/framing.
Lynch, David. ‘Article 12 — Rees-Mogg: France Is Safe for Refugees — except Those Who “Don’t like Garlic”’. The Independent. 6 January 2022.
Morton, Becky. ‘Covid: UK Records More than 150,000 Deaths’. 8 January 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59923936.
Mundasad, Smitha. ‘UK Survey Suggests 1.3 Million Have Long Covid’. BBC News. 6 January 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59895598.
Nelson, Thomas E. ‘Issues Framing’. In The Oxford Handbook of American Public Opinion and the Media, edited by Robert Y. Shapiro and Lawrence R. Jacobs, 189–203. Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013.
O’Grady, Sean. ‘Article 08 — The next Tory Leader That Labour Would Fear Most’. The Independent. 12 January 2022.
‘Prince Andrew Loses Military Titles and Use of HRH’. BBC News. 13 January 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59987935.
Quinn, Ben, and Caroline Davies. ‘Prince Andrew Loses Military Roles and Use of HRH Title’. The Guardian. 13 January 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/13/veterans-ask-queen-to-strip-prince-andrew-of-honorary-military-titles.
Siddique, Haroon. ‘Use of “VIP Lane” to Award Covid PPE Contracts Unlawful, High Court Rules’. The Guardian. 12 January 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/12/use-of-vip-lane-to-award-covid-ppe-contracts-unlawful-high-court-rules.
Sirhan, Nadia R. ‘Language Use in the Reporting of the “Conflict”’. In Reporting Palestine-Israel in British Newspapers, 61–122. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17072-1_3.
‘The Independent Becomes the First National Newspaper to Embrace a Global, Digital-Only Future’. The Independent. 12 February 2016. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-independent-becomes-the-first-national-newspaper-to-embrace-a-global-digital-only-future-a6869736.html.
UK Government. ‘First Family Resettled under Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme’. Gov.UK, 2022. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/first-family-resettled-under-afghan-citizens-resettlement-scheme.
Waterson, Jim. ‘Johnson Peerage for Lebedev Crowns Mutually Beneficial Friendship’. The Guardian. 31 July 2020.
White, Nadine. ‘Article 03 — Windrush Descendant Loses High Court Battle with Home Office over Status’. The Independent. 14 January 2022.
Young, Vicki. ‘Downing Street Apologises to Queen over Lockdown Parties’. BBC News. 14 January 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59997364.
APPENDIX I: DEFINING FRAMING
Framing avoids narrow definitions, and it is to Entman that most scholars turn to for a working definition. Entman provides the most specific definition, which allows for a breadth of application [1].
Before exploring Entman, it is worth examining other broader definitions of what a frame is:
“Frames are cognitive shortcuts that people use to help make sense of complex information. Frames help us to interpret the world around us and represent that world to others. They help us organize complex phenomena into coherent, understandable categories. When we label a phenomenon, we give meaning to some aspects of what is observed, while discounting other aspects because they appear irrelevant or counter-intuitive. Thus, frames provide meaning through selective simplification, by filtering people’s perceptions and providing them with a field of vision for a problem.” [2]
This definition of a frame is very cognitive — in that it speaks of the effect of the frame — whilst defining it as just a simplification of information. While frames are simplifications, they are not just that; they are not just about explaining often confusing or nuanced information. Frame ‘create meaning’, that is, giving meaning to information. To the facts, framing gives us a narrative and a contextual idea:
“Just as people as workers have no voice in what they make, how they make it, or how the product is distributed and used, so do people as producers of meaning have no voice in what the media make of what they say or do, or in the context within which the media frame their activity. The resulting meanings, now mediated, acquire an eery substance in the real world, standing outside their ostensible makers and confronting them as an alien force.” [3]
Facts, information, and content are jigsaw pieces of a picture that we hang in a frame — the frame tells us how to put the pieces together (and which way up to hang it) to give the picture meaning. The actual subjects, information or facts of a media piece do not have a real determination in how they are portrayed. The media will frame it according to the narrative of their choosing. So, whilst one may be talking of valuable insights into life and social issues, they may be portrayed within the larger frame narrative, leading us to believe they are unworthy of listening to. An example of this can be seen in the media coverage of Jeremy Corbyn when the London School of Economics analysed over 800 newspaper articles about him [4].
Framing is ‘a way to describe the power of a communicating text’ [5]. According to Entman, Frames contain two overarching paradigms — selection and salience, whilst individual frames do four things, define problems, and then diagnose causes, they also make a morale judgement, and finally they suggest remedies [6]. Frames have four locales: the communicators (creator of the text); the text (that which is communicated, e.g. newspaper article, a photograph etc), the receiver (the audience of that text/communication) and finally, the cultural context to which the frame exists, alludes and portrays [7]. The issue frames, which are frames around political issues, are defined as having factual elements, but secondly, a message supporting one ‘side’ within the debate which the frame is supporting [8]. Framing is therefore, ‘the dynamic process of advocating or applying a frame to an issue’ [9].
Whilst frames are ‘simplifications’, they ‘create meaning’, thereby reconstructing the public discourse on complex issues, creating primarily division or partisanship — they help to wall us off into ‘them’ vs ‘us’ camps. Reframing can help change minds; the Feinberg and Willer study evidenced this by persuading American conservatives to support same-sex marriage by reframing the issue in terms of patriotism and group loyalty [10]. The act of creating and changing frames raises the question of whether frames are a persuasive effort and, at the more extreme, a propaganda attack.
[1] Entman, ‘Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm’, 51 & 52; Nelson, ‘Issues Framing’, 190.
[2] Kaufman, Elliott, and Shmueli, ‘Frames, Framing and Reframing’.
[3] Gitlin, The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Making & Unmaking of the New Left, 3.
[4] Cammaerts, DeCillia, and Magalhães, ‘Journalistic Transgressions in the Representation of Jeremy Corbyn: From Watchdog to Attackdog’.
[5] Entman, ‘Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm’, 51.
[6] Ibid., 52.
[7] ibid ibid., 52–53.
[8] Nelson, ‘Issues Framing’, 189.
[9] Ibid., 191.
[10] Feinberg and Willer, ‘From Gulf to Bridge: When Do Moral Arguments Facilitate Political Influence?’
APPENDIX II: ARTICLE LIST
Article 1: Dearden, Lizzie. ‘Channel Boat Migrants Face “illegal Entrant” Deportation’. The Independent. 17 January 2022.
Article 2: Cowburn, Ashley, and May Bulman. ‘Senior Tory Says Plan for Military to Take Charge of Channel Crossings Operations “Massive Distraction”’. The Independent. 17 January 2022.
Article 3: White, Nadine. ‘Windrush Descendant Loses High Court Battle with Home Office over Status’. The Independent. 14 January 2022.
Article 4: Churchman, Laurie. ‘Sudanese Man in His Twenties Dies Trying to Cross English Channel’. The Independent. 14 January 2022.
Article 5: James, Liam. ‘Brexit Lorry Flow System to Cause Disruption on M20 Motorway for a Year’. The Independent. 15 January 2022.
Article 6: Bulman, May. ‘Man Dies in Channel as 33 Are Rescued from Small Boat’. The Independent. 15 January 2022.
Article 7: Drummond, Michael. ‘Sudanese Man Died Trying to Cross English Channel — French Authorities’. The Independent. 14 January 2022.
Article 8: O’Grady, Sean. ‘Article 08 — The next Tory Leader That Labour Would Fear Most’. The Independent. 12 January 2022.
Article 9: AP News, Spagat, and Torrens. ‘Families Separated at Border Now Fear Extortion Attempts’. The Independent. 11 January 2022.
Article 10: ‘Home News in Brief’. The Independent. 6 January 2022.
Article 11: Giordano, Chiara. ‘Group of 66 Migrants Become First to Cross English Channel in 2022’. The Independent. 5 January 2022.
Article 12: Lynch, David. ‘Rees-Mogg: France Is Safe for Refugees — except Those Who “Don’t like Garlic”’. The Independent. 6 January 2022.
Article 13: Drummond, Michael. ‘English Channel Crossings: Girl in Pink Onesie among First Arrivals of 2022’. The Independent. 4 January 2022.
Article 14: Drummond, Michael. ‘Record Year Sees More than 28,300 People Cross English Channel to the UK’. The Independent. 4 January 2022.
Article 15: Bulman, May. ‘Fears for Calais’s Displaced Thousands after Charity Cuts’. The Independent. 5 January 2022.
Article 16: Dearden, Lizzie. ‘Channel Boat Crossings Tripled in 2021 as Government’s “chaotic Approach” to Asylum Seekers Blamed’. The Independent. 4 January 2022.
Article 17: Bulman, May. ‘How Charities Are Plugging Gaping Gaps in Support for Refugees in Calais’. The Independent. 4 January 2022.
Article 18: Dearden, Lizzie. ‘Government Gave £700k to Firm Telling Afghans Not to Flee before Taliban Takeover’. The Independent. 3 January 2022.
