Public Relations and Advertising Theories: Concepts and Practices

Aynur Arslan

Framing Approach in Public Relations

1 Introduction

Framing is an important approach that shapes the people’s point of view towards the world in the reconstruction of social reality. The framing approach has similarities with the agenda-setting researches on the presentation of events, issues and problems in the news and their perception by the public. But the framing approach goes beyond the agenda-setting researches in that it examines not only what the people talk and think about, but also how they think and talk about (Erdoğan, 2011).

The concept of framing, which is widely used for both analytical and descriptive purposes in different fields of the social sciences, was first described in 1952 by anthropologist Gregory Bateson. Bateson defined the concept of frame concept as a group of messages or meaningful movements that included or excluded a certain view and stated that the people perceive and interpret the events through these frames. Later in 1974, sociologist Ervin Goffman, who is accepted as the founder of the frame analysis approach, similarly defined the framing as the basic cognitive structures guiding the perception and representation of reality (Bateson, 1972; Kavaklı, 2012). Hallahan (1999) defines framing as “a window or portrait frame drawn around information that delimits the subject matter and, thus, focuses attention on key elements within”. The framing approach has been used in connection with the study of public opinion and voting behavior in political science; the cognitive studies in social psychology; the class, gender and race research in cultural studies and sociology; and the opinion shaping or persuasion (Entman, 1993, Benford and Snow, 2000). The use of the framing approach in media and communication has been around since the 1980s Entman (1993), who stands out with his studies in this field, states that framing helps to study how media coverage of events is formulated and established. According to Entman, framing is to choose certain aspects of a perceived reality and make them more prominent in a communicative text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, interpretation, moral evaluation or attitude-taking recommendation (Entman, 1993; Kavakli, 2012). De Vreese (2005) also asserts that the potential of the framing concept lies in the focus on communicative processes. Communication is not static, but rather a dynamic ←39 | 40→process that involves frame-building (how frames emerge) and frame-setting (the interplay between media frames and audience predispositions). Framing theory is used to examine both the effects of communicative texts created according to a specific framework on the reader/watcher/receiver and the content of the texts produced in terms of journalistic practices in the media field (Çobaner, 2013).

There are two types of media framing, namely media frames and viewer frames. Media frames, also called as news frames, are defined as a stream of organizing ideas or stories that take place in the news presentation and give meaning to the event. This process is carried out by the journalists through the news production. The framing of a subject by the journalists takes place through being influenced by social norms and values, the media ownership and organizational pressure and constraints, the pressures of interest groups, the news production routines, and the ideological or political orientations of the journalists (Guran and Özarslan, 2013). Viewer frames are formed by the mass media influencing the cognitive processes that the individuals use in information processing. When an individual encounters a news frame, a cognitive representation specific to that event occurs, and this representation guides the interpretation of subsequent information (Guran and Özarslan, 2013).

In this study, in which the use of the framing approach in the field of public relations is examined, after explaining the framing and the framing analysis in a media text, the use of the framing approach in the field of public relations has been evaluated. In the last section of the study, the use of the framing approach in the field of public relations has been analyzed in the example of “Use of Public Relations Applications in Health Promotion: Framing Analysis of Health-Themed Public Service Announcements (PSAs)”.

2Framing Building

Today in media sector, how the news is told and presented has become more important than what the news actually is. The news media influences people’s decisions and preferences by ignoring some of the events or problems and highlighting some others. The general context which is created by determining what to include or exclude in the news in order to make a news meaningful, which is related with an event or problem, is defined as the news frame (Atabek and Uztuğ, 1998). In this sense, although the framing resembles agenda-setting theory of Mc Combs and Shaw, the agenda-setting deals with how often the subjects stand out in media whereas the framing is interested in with which features the subjects appear on media. News media seek to reduce the complexity ←40 | 41→of an issue by presenting it in an easy-to-understand, interpretive package. Framing serves as an organizing theme that connects otherwise discrete pieces of information into a package (Kim at al., 2011).

Framing is actually a news-making strategy. Entman (1993) has set four headings to describe how the frames operate strategically and which functions they perform. According to him, the framing in media texts; (1) defines the problems, (2) diagnoses the causes, (3) makes moral judgments and (4) suggests remedies.

In another study, the studies of news selection process and media content suggested that the frames of the message are influenced by three sources (Scheufele, 1999; cited in Özarslan, 2007):

Gitlin also asserts that the media is not completely independent from the selection, narration and framing of the news; the factors such as asocial culture, social processes, the interaction of news sources and owners with the reporters, the cognitive bias of journalists, interest groups, civil society movements and politicians play a role in the framing process. Gitlin says that the word combinations used in the news frames recreate the reality by interacting with specific language and contextual information and the news reaches the consumer with this comment (Gitlin 1980, cited in Özarslan, 2014). Thus, the recreated news rebuilds the reality of the reader or viewer.

According to Van Gorp (2007), “the essence of framing is in social interaction. Media makers interact with their sources and other actors in the public arena, and the receivers interact with media content and with each other. Thus, framing involves the interplay that occurs between the textual level, the cognitive level, the extramedial level and, finally, the stock of frames that is available in a given culture”.

Given the way it is used in all fields, it can be seen that the framing focuses on two types of results, individual and societal. The framing at the individual level ←41 | 42→focuses on the results that cause the individuals who are exposed to a particular frame to change the views and attitudes towards a subject and guide individuals’ way of information processing. At the societal level, the frames target the social behaviors such as political socialization, decision making and collective action (Çobaner, 2013; Entman, 1993).

The fact that framing is being used by different disciplines in different fields has also led to disagreements about how it is defined and how it is created. For this reason, it is not possible to mention a single framing approach. Over time, with the differentiation of social, political and economic events, new frames emerge and these frames can gain or lose importance in the news media. These changes can be seen as a sign of framing struggles in the formation of meaning (Çobaner, 2013).

There are many studies that examine how frames are formed in media news. In these studies, it is generally analyzed how the journalists use the frames while creating news stories and how these stories are interpreted by the audience.

3Framing Analysis

The aim of the framing analysis is to reveal how the frames are placed in the news presentation and how the audience is affected. For this reason, first of all, the media content and messages should be identified and understood. Framing analysis is a type of content analysis that is used by the researcher examining the text to identify the frame. Using the content analysis, the researcher should systematically reveal which frames are dominant in the news. Many factors can be used to decipher the frames, such as to use of words or phrases, to refer specifically to the content, to select particular pictures or photographs, or to refer to certain sources. For example, while the oil drilling topic is being conveyed to the audience, it is presented in the frames such as the economic costs of gas prices, unemployment, environment and the dependence on USA in foreign energy resources (Özarslan, 2014; Erdoğan, 2014; Erdoğan, 2008).

Framing researchers have tried to create frame classes adaptive to different topics. According to Iyengar (1997), who investigated how the news framed problems such as poverty, crime, and unemployment, and the effects of this framing on the masses who are held responsible for the problems, the news stories are framed as episodic (based on the events) and thematic (based on the subject). The episodic framing on television news is visually very attractive, and it takes place with live broadcast from the scene. However, it individualizes the life by reducing it to the incoherent stories and independent events whereas in the thematic framework, the collective elements of the problem are brought to ←42 | 43→the forefront and politics and causal responsibilities are emphasized. Iyengar (1999) states that reporting the event-based framing is visually very attractive, while the subject-based framing is less interesting, but it approaches the subject more with a more holistic view (Gilliam and Iyengar, 2005).

Semetko and Valkenburg mention about the inductive and deductive approaches to how to analyze news frames. Inductive approach means that the researcher forms the frames according to the material available and analyzes the news story with an open point of view in order to reveal all possible framing options. The deductive approach is to make the predetermined frames (the results of the studies done before) suit to the content and to use them. This approach predetermines the certain frames as the variables of content analysis, and then analyses how these frames are seen in the news (Semetko and Valkenburg, 2000:94). Semetkove and Valkenburg identified five common news frames to analyze 2,601 newspapers stories and 1,522 television news stories about the meetings of the European heads of state in Amsterdam in 1997. These are the frame of conflict, human interest, economic consequences, morality and responsibility. The conflict frame focuses on the conflict between individuals, groups and institutions to attract the audience attention. The human interest frame presents the stories of human life in a dramatic and emotional way. The economic consequences frame presents the event or problem in terms of its consequences on the individuals, groups, institutions, region or country. The morality frame presents the issues in the context of religious tenets or moral principles. Finally, the responsibility frame describes the problem as the responsibility of certain individuals, groups, governments or institutions (Semetko and Valkenburg, 2000).

Pan and Kosicki stated that four framing tools can be used to examine the news rhetoric. These tools are; the tools changing the sentence structures such as news titles or headlines; the texts structures that provide the entry or end of a new news article; the thematic structures such as assumptions or judgments; and the oratory tools such as metaphors or idioms. The authors argued that with these frames the public policy issues are reproduced and the basis is formed to negotiate (Pan and Kosicki 1993, cited in Guran and Özarslan, 2013). According to Entman, for the framing purposes, some keywords, figurative expressions, symbols and visual images are used in the news, and they are embedded in the text. Entman also stated that changing the order of words can change the perception of the human subjects (Entman, 1991). For this reason, examination of the words, symbols and visual images in the news content will show how a framing is done and make it possible to read and understand the subtexts.←43 | 44→

One of the most comprehensive approaches to identify and evaluate the news frames belongs to Tankard, who put forward a list of 11 framing mechanisms or focal points (Tankard, 2001, cited in Erdoğan, 2008). According to him, a news frame can be revealed by examining the headings, subtitles, photographs, captions, headlines, source selection, selection of citations, promotions, logos, statistics and charts, final sentences and paragraphs. Researches on framing are mostly focused on the media frames regarding the public policies and their practitioners. However, such researches are potentially useful and used in identifying the strategic messages generated by the public relations practitioners (Hallahan, 1999).

Studies have shown that the framing researches in the last 15 years have been outside the field of general media studies and mostly in the fields of public relations and health communication (Özarslan and Guran, 2015). According to Lim and Jones (2010), a frame has the utility for theoretical and practical understanding of public relations campaigns. To evaluate the utility, researchers need to analyze framing research in public relations.

4Application of Framing Approach in Public Relations

The American Public Relations Association has defined public relations as: “the management function responsible for a number of tasks including management activities such as; anticipating, analyzing and interpreting public opinion, attitudes and agendas that may influence an organization; conducting continuous researches; planning and implementation of the organization’s efforts to influence or change public policies” (Grunig and Jhon, 2005). As is seen, there is a need for a strategically planned content in order to influence the target audiences in public relations’ studies. At this point, public relations practitioners often use frames that can influence target audiences in news production, campaign execution processes and institutional studies.

The public relations has a decisive role, especially in the news production process. The public relations keep the news published in the media under control in terms of subject and timing. The frames circulated by the public relations practitioners are largely transformed into media frames and conveyed to the target audience. In this regard, news production involves the control of three parties, namely news source, news organization and reporter.

Especially with the emergence of television and internet news as the prominent media, the reporter’s need to access reliable, accurate and confirmable data, photos and video sources has also increased, and in this respect the need for cooperation with the public relations practitioners has strengthened. The news ←44 | 45→that the public relations practitioner has prepared in a frame that does not contradict the journalist and the ideology of the news organization can turn into an advantage and be used without any need for correction and without wasting time (Guran and Özarslan, 2013).

According to Hallahan, creating common frames for mutual problems or issues is a must for creating effective relations, because the public relations is a process to establish and maintain a beneficial relationship between an organization and its target audience. Hallahan identified seven framing models that can be applied in a wide range of levels, including intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, inter-organization and societal levels. These models are framing of situations, framing of attributes, framing of risky choices, framing of actions, framing of issues, framing of responsibility and framing of news (Hallahan, 1999; Güran and Özarslan, 2013);

As is seen, there are many situations in which the public relations applied or may apply the framing approach. Public relations practitioners, who already use the ←46 | 47→framing in the studies in favor of the institution, can create frames that are able to comply the public interests with the interests of the organization on the same level in the possible new processes.

Health communication has a wide field of study, such as the health of individuals in the community, the improvement of the quality of life and the preparation and regulation of national and universal health programs. In health communication, which is an important social process in improving health service provision, there are individual and societal goals on the levels of mass communication and interpersonal communication, such as the recognition of the health services, dissemination of the correct information and development of correct behaviors. With the public education campaigns that aim to create awareness about the health-related behaviors in society, to change the attitudes and to motivate the individuals for the right behaviors, ensuring that the health messages are disseminated is also a study field of the health communication (Becerikli, 2012; Çobaner, 2013; Çınarlı, 2008).

Health communication contributes to the development of health by using social marketing, media advocacy and public relations methods (Çınarlı, 2008);

Social marketing involves the marketing practices that are to the benefit of society and conducted by non-profit non-governmental organizations and the state. Health communication campaigns are formed as a result of combining the applied marketing techniques with the communication, public relations and social psychology theories. Public health specialists use this method, which should not be seen as an advertising tool, to improve personal health behaviors.

Media advocacy is to make the social and physical environment healthier, the most important determinants of health, by means of the media power. The media may exert pressure on those decision makers influencing the circles in question. It can support the creation of strategically aggressive and effective health public policies. As a form of activism, media advocacy is realized by assignment of celebrities for the fight against some diseases.

Public relations is one of the popular strategies used in the field of health communication. The public relations in health communication is used to disseminate accurate, reliable information about health, to persuade to the health behavior and to create health literacy. Public and private health institutions, laboratories ←47 | 48→and research institutions benefit from the public relations activities to convey the health-related information to the public.

Mass media is the most effective means of delivering health messages to many individuals. In this way, the same message can be delivered to large target audiences and information about public health can be conveyed. Health news, PSAs, promotion and motion picture are used as a means to reach the masses (Okay, 2014). Many studies suggest that health news has a significant impact on the audience’s perception of health issues as a function of the news frames employed within the news story. For example, Andsager and Powers analyzed breast cancer news in newspapers and women’s magazines. There were significant differences in the news of breast cancer in newspapers and women’s magazines. Women’s magazines emphasize personal stories as a frame, whereas newspapers contained the economic frame (Park and Reber, 2010). This study investigated efforts to frame public health issues in public service announcements.

5.1Use of PSAs in Health Communication

PSAs are “informative and educational films, voices, and captions which are considered as beneficial to the society and prepared or procured by the state institutions and organizations, non-governmental organizations such as associations and foundations”(RTÜK¹, 2018). PSAs, which are one of the most important communication methods that aim to raise awareness and encourage audience to think about issues such as health, education, environment, human rights, children’s rights and women’s rights, need to be designed in such a way that the public will actively participate in the problems and solutions (Yıldırım and Çobaner, 2013).

In Turkey, PSAs began with the announcements of contents beneficial to the society on radio in 1927 and the public spots beneficial to the society on television in 1981. PSAs published between 1981 and 1990 provide information about health, education, housekeeping, savings and society rules.

Since the 2000s, PSAs have begun to emerge as an audiovisual form that has an influence towards the public service delivery. Today, state institutions and organizations as well as non-governmental organizations prepare PSAs to inform the public about the issues, such as education, health, traffic and environment, and to create sensitivity (Bilgiç, 2016; Duğan and Şahin, 2016).

The issue/problem, the characteristics of the target audience and generating the creative message are important factors for effective PSAs. In this process, ←48 | 49→persuasion methods and psychological factors should be used well. These factors are providing trust, reaching a common ground, providing evidence, forming emotional ties and timing. The most important indicator of the success of the persuasion and its source is the attitudes of the individual (Duğan and Şahin, 2016).

PSAs are designed in different formats for the means such as television, posters, brochures or the internet. They are often formed to increase the public awareness about an issue, and then to make a change in the belief, attitude and behavior. PSAs prepared in the field of health are one of the important steps of media campaigns. It is generally intended to raise the awareness about obesity, diabetes, AIDS, cancer and refraining from alcohol, drugs and smoking (Özbük and Öz, 2017).

If the audience likes, participates in and understands the health information presented in the PSAs, it is possible to occur a change in health-related behaviors. For the people to be pleased with the messages formed, PSAs need to present the information in an attractive, informative, encouraging, new and useful way. It is not enough for the given messages to express only the “right” way, but it should also make practical suggestions suitable to the lifestyle of the target audience (İnci, Sancar and Bostancı, 2017).

The aim in preparing health-related PSAs is to inform the society about health risks, to make the individuals be able to protect and improve their health on their own, to reach the information about early diagnosis and treatment techniques and to minimize health risks for the whole society (Çınarlı, 2008). The PSAs, one part of the health campaigns, are presented to the target audiences in the frames determined by the institutions that prepare them.

5.2Method

The objective of this study is to reveal with which frames the PSAs that Republic of Turkey (ROT) Ministry of Health produced are presented. For this purpose, all of the 67 PSAs that exist on official website of ROT Ministry of Health are included in the study and examined being supported with content analysis in order to form a basis for the analysis of frames used in the PSAs. Content analysis is a research technique that provides examining of content within the frame of codings identified beforehand. Also, content analysis is a research technique that can make iterable and meaningful inferences and is expected to provide reliable results. Content to be analyzed can be in different forms such as newspaper, magazine, poster, web page, advertisement, radio or television program, film and photograph. It is possible to learn beyond the visible by the content analysis, which enables the examining of verbal, written, visual or other materials objectively ←49 | 50→and systematically and is a scientific approach (Geray, 2004). A coding scale was formed in this study considering similar studies (Özbük and Öz, 2017; İnci, Sancar and Bostancı, 2017) by reviewing the literature. In the coding scale, there are keywords such as subject of the PSAs, the casts, the audience, the way that message is given, celebrity/expert, voice-over, focus, purpose, frame and positive/negative. In order to be objective in the study, codings were conducted by two scholars one of whom is a writer. Intercoder reliability of the research was found 0.90. Coding was completed on 7–14 May 2018.

5.3Findings

Out of total 67 PSAs, which are accessed from the official website of the Ministry of Health and are included in the study, 50 (74,6 %) belong to Ministry of Health and 17 (25,4 %) belong to non-governmental organizations.

When we examine the distribution of PSAs according to the subject, it is seen that 14 (20,9 %) are about blood and organ donation and 13 (19,4 %) are about cigarette/tobacco addiction. A total of 17 (25,4 %) PSAs included different subjects such as dangers of ticks, dental health, cancer screening and environmental health (Tab. 1).

Tab. 2 shows who acted in PSAs. In 13 (19,4 %) PSAs patients and their families, in 12 PSAs (17,9 %) public and in 10 (14,9 %) PSAs healthcare professionals and patients together appear. Celebrities acted in 5 (7,5 %) PSAs.