Frames in Production: Actors, Networks, Diffusion (FRAMENET)

政治行为者不能客观地提出问题。他们强调某些方面，贬低其他方面，并影响观众对问题的看法，这被称为框架效应。例如，森林可以被视为有待开发的资源库、艺术灵感的来源、脆弱而复杂的生态系统，或者必须加以驯服的威胁。每一种替代框架都指向不同的政策处方。此外，并不是每一帧都对观众产生同样的影响。现有的研究表明，带有负面信息的情绪化框架在改变人们的想法方面特别有效。近几十年来，在大多数与欧盟（EU）有关的公投中，强调移民增加风险的情绪化论点在说服一部分公众投票反对手头的欧盟条约方面发挥了重要作用。框架的重要性在当今世界是显而易见的。参与者构建问题的方式在选举、移民政策、环境政治、贸易谈判、全球健康、透明度改革等领域都很重要。尽管框架在政治心理学、社会运动、国际关系或政治传播等领域得到了广泛的研究，但现有研究的主要焦点是它们的说服力，换句话说，影响他们说服力的因素。这个项目提出了一个被忽视的问题：框架首先来自哪里？为什么演员选择他们使用的特定框架？因此，该项目旨在创建一个新的比较研究议程，调查具体的声明何时以及如何出现在政治辩论中，由哪种行为者提出，以及它们是否以及如何传播给其他人。该项目研究了五个问题领域（贸易，移民，环境，全球健康和透明度），每个问题领域都有两个精心挑选的政治辩论。该项目采取四个步骤来实现其目标。在第一步中，它使用了一种新的方法论工具，称为话语网络分析（研究的内容，参数与网络的演员），以跟踪特定的框架的出现在一些选定的政治辩论，最重要的演员参与的过程中，和扩散网络参与。在第二步中，它与这些参与框架的关键行为者进行访谈，以调查决定他们框架选择的最重要因素，以及他们各自的机构是否对这些选择产生影响。在第三步中，该项目研究这些模式是否以及如何从一个问题领域到另一个问题领域（贸易，移民，环境，全球健康和透明度）有所不同。因此，该项目以一种创新的混合方法为一个关键但被忽视的理论问题提供了一个比较和全面的答案。该项目的第四步也是最后一步是向学术和非学术界传播其研究结果，以提高人们对全球化世界中这五个关键问题领域框架产生过程的认识，鼓励政策和媒体精英更好地了解他们的框架进程和战略如何影响关于这些问题的公共辩论，并提出创新、包容和循证的传播战略。该项目与全世界全球发展政策的主要智囊团之一德国发展研究所以及一系列相关的政府和非政府行为体合作，在研究的每个阶段都吸收了主要受益者。这些目标将通过定期会议、在布鲁塞尔和日内瓦举行的两次政策活动、各种政策文件以及我们网站上的一个分析工具来实现，该工具将可视化我们的调查结果，以便政策制定者、活动家和公众能够轻松理解。

Political actors do not present issues objectively. They emphasise certain aspects and deemphasise others and influence the way the audience thinks about the issue, which is called a framing effect. A forest, for example, can be framed as a resource pool to be exploited, a source of artistic inspiration, a fragile and complex ecosystem, or a threat that must be tamed. Each of these alternative frames points to a different policy prescription. Moreover, not every frame is equally influential on its audience. Existing research demonstrates that emotionally compelling frames with negative information are especially effective in changing people's minds. In the recent decades, in most referendums relating to the European Union (EU), emotional arguments highlighting the risks of an increase in immigration played a significant role in persuading a segment of the public to vote against the EU treaty at hand. The importance of frames is evident in today's world. The ways actors frame issues are shown to matter in the fields of elections, immigration policy, environmental politics, trade negotiations, global health, transparency reforms and more.Although frames have been studied extensively in fields such as political psychology, social movements, international relations or political communication, the main focus of the existing research is their persuasiveness, in other words the factors that affect their persuasiveness. This project asks a neglected question: Where do frames come from in the first place? Why do actors choose the specific frames they use? The project thus aims to create a new, comparative research agenda that investigates when and how specific statements emerge in a political debate, by which kinds of actors they are proposed, and whether and how they diffuse to others. The project studies frames in five issue areas (trade, immigration, environment, global health, and transparency), with two carefully selected political debates in each of these issue areas. The project takes four steps in order to achieve its aim. In a first step, it uses a new methodological tool called Discourse Network Analysis (studying the content of arguments together with the networks of actors), in order to trace the emergenceof specific frames in a number of selected political debates, the most important actors involved in the process, and the diffusion networks involved. In a second step, it conducts interviews with these key actors involved in framing in order to investigate the most important factors determining their framing choices and whether their respective institutions have an impact on these choices. In a third step, the project studies whether and how these patterns vary from one issue area to another (trade, immigration, environment, global health, and transparency). As such, the project offers a comparative andcomprehensive answer to a crucial but overlooked theoretical question, with an innovative and mixed-method methodology.The fourth and final step of the project is to disseminate its findings to academic and non-academic communities, in order to raise awareness on the processes that produce frames in these five key issue areas in a globalising world, encourage policy and media elites to be better aware of how their framing processes and strategies impact the public debates on these issues, and to suggest innovative, inclusive and evidence-based communication strategies. Working in partnership with German Development Institute, one of the leading think tanks for global development policy worldwide, and a range of relevant governmental and non-governmental actors, the project integrates key beneficiaries at every stage of the research. These will be achieved through regular meetings, two policy events in Brussels and Geneva, various policy papers, and finally an analytical tool on our website that will visualise our findings so that policymakers, activists and the general public can easily understand them.