Framing Communications Research

About this grant

The FrameWorks Institute is preparing to launch a comprehensive study of race in America through an approach to communications research and practice called "strategic frame analysis." This analysis can be a powerful tool for advancing an understanding of race in the United States because it focuses on the public’s deeply held views of the world and uses decades of research on how people think and communicate.Funding will support first-year objectives that include determining the extent to which communications exert a positive or negative impact on public support for civil rights, discrimination and equity; conducting one-on-one interviews with the public to explore the differences between how people define themselves and how they reflect on their own experiences; organizing 14 focus groups with African Americans, Latinos, Asians and whites from across the country; analyzing the framing of news coverage on various issues; and preparing reports and recommendations.FrameWorks, established in 1999 as a project of the College-University Resource Institute, works to advance the nonprofit sector’s communications capacity for framing the public discourse about social problems.