Comparing Implicit Frames Across Domains

• In Event: Studies of Message Properties

Abstract

Automated content analysis can greatly enhance framing research. Implicit framing analysis for instance has proven itself as a powerful tool to automatically extract frames from large collections of texts. Comparisons of these frames however are typically still done in a qualitative and interpretative manner. This paper proposes to complement the implicit framing technique with a quantitative measure that creates insight in the degree to which different domains overlap: cosine similarity. The technique is tested on a case study of the Dutch nuclear energy debate, including content of three organizations, two news agencies and two newspapers. Analysis shows that the results of the two techniques of implicit framing and cosine similarity analysis are consistent with each other: the degree to which frames substantially overlap is reflected in the cosine similarity scores. Applying cosine similarity analysis empowers framing scholars to statistically compare texts between domains as well as over time.

Author

• Jelle Boumans, University of Amsterdam