Frame Analysis: Effects of Abortion Restrictions in The United States
This assignment will require you to study each news report closely using the methods of frame analysis. Please pay special attention to the readings and discussions presented during the “Evaluating Information” week. In your paper, you are required to establish at least 1 link between your analysis and material that you have encountered in this class (Kitzinger, and Jackson & Jamieson). Please make relations to concepts that we encountered in these readings and cite them.
The purpose of the paper is NOT to argue for your position on the topic or the validity of information in the news reports. Rather, the paper is looking at HOW this story is CONSTRUCTED across news platforms. As you review each report in your sample, pay close attention to patterns in reporting, tools of persuasion, descriptions, visuals, sources and editorial bias.
The paper should be organized around frames and not the sources. The structure of your paper should include an introductory paragraph, the body, and a concluding paragraph. Your introduction should provide (1) a short background of your topic, (2) present your sources, and (3) announce the structure of your paper based on the frames that you are working with (findings). Be sure to include a well thought out thesis that introduces the frame analysis you will be detailing in the body of your paper. The body should be structured around your frames, not your sources (i.e. one paragraph per frame not one paragraph per source). Feel free to add subtitles to your paper--signposting is helpful for your readers. All 7 out of 9 your sources should feature in your frame analysis. (If you decide to skip any of them, please give convincing reasons for the omission.) Your conclusion should recap on these same frames, do not be afraid of repetition!
Tips for Frame Analysis
As you begin your analysis, use the following questions as a guide to help you focus on the tools and patterns of narrative construction.You do not have to answer each question for each news outlet. Rather, your paper should be a logical presentation of your overall findings organized around the frames you have observed. Tip: one way to help find patterns between outlets is to organize your observations to these questions in a spreadsheet.
The first group of questions will help you interrogate each report individually.
What facts are being presented by the report?
How much of the coverage is an apparent fact? And how much is opinion? How are these being presented?
What are the primary sources of information? Is it balanced?
What facet of the story is being held up as most salient by the author? What gets ignored?
What visuals are presented?
The second group of questions will help you discover frames used across outlets. Frame analysis requires close attention to detail and reflective engagement with words, facts, and statistics in context. Look out for “discursive cues” or labels, images, metaphors and analogies used in the report. Drawing on Kitzinger (2007), use the questions below to guide the frames you will discuss in your paper.
How is reality represented?
How are the key participants portrayed?
How is the problem defined?
Who is assigned responsibility for this issue?
What solutions are being presented? How much of an effort is being made to get at “the heart of the matter”/ “actual reality”?
What “narrative” is being built up across media outlets? (is there a single narrative or multiple competing narratives?) Is any of the above going against the narrative?
Example of Frame Analysis
For example, you might have recognized a distinct pattern between nonprofit and left-leaning outlets describing Greta Thunberg’s UN speech in overwhelmingly positive terms in stark contrast to the right-leaning outlets. (Be sure not to confuse the “frame” with the political position of the outlet--please refer to Kitzinger ) When writing your analysis paper, use the first paragraph to provide a brief overview of the most objective “uncontested” elements of the news event. Your thesis statement should appear toward the end of your introductory paragraph. It is crucial that your thesis statement briefly lays out what you are about to do by listing the frames you found and the role each plays in the narrative construction.
The rest of your paper will be organized around detailing each frame you find by drawing on evidence directly from your sample of reports. So, once you introduce the frames you found in Greta Thunberg story, an extolling social activist frame by left-leaning outlets and a disparaging frame by right-leaning outlets, the body of your paper would specifically present the ways in which these frames are constructed. Always support your analysis with specific examples from the sources you collect (include specific timecodes for long clips to help the reader).
APA Resources
Writing Guide and OWL Purdue University (Links to an external site.)
Title
Your name
Subject and Section
Professor’s name
Date
Introduction
The debate on abortion in the United States is commonly divided into two frames: pro-life and pro-choice. The pro-choice position holds that a woman can decide on her abortion. On the other hand, the pro-life position believes that a fetus inside a woman’s womb is human and that people must also protect its life. The public and the government have expressed support for and oppose these two positions. Furthermore, the positions have legal permission from the government. In the United States, for example, there are laws restricting abortion. Some support the government’s abortion restrictions, and some oppose them. There could be several reasons why opinions on abortion remain divided today. Furthermore, people’s perspectives change over time due to societal changes or a shift in mentality. Nonetheless, Americans believe abortion should be legal in most cases, though many are open to restrictions, thinking that it must be permitted according to specific situations only.
Moreover, multiple sources are used in this paper to determine the effects of abortion restrictions on the United States. There is a video clip, a tweet, news, and articles; however, online articles are the primary source of information for frame analysis. All the sources will aid in developing the topic to be discussed. This paper is also organized thematically and according to the two opposing frames.
Frames of Abortion
Pro-choice
According to Safa (2022), a man should not express an opinion on abortion until a baby is born from his body. Thus, the pro-choice movement believes that only a woman can choose whether or not to abort her child. Moreover, the news sources focused on women’s bodies and rights for the pro-choice movement. This viewpoint holds that a woman is responsible for carrying the fetus in her womb; it is her body, and she knows what is best for herself. Hence, the pro-choice movement is affected by government restrictions adversely.
A woman may choose abortion for a variety of reasons. It could be for health, financial, psychological, or other personal reasons. Health is a significant concern why women choose abortion. Hence, media outlets used the words “pregnant women” to emphasize that the decision was mainly for the safety of these women. Pregnant women can experience life-threatening bleeding or infections, for which abortion treatment will constantly be the standard of care (Luchetta, 2022). Sometimes, a woman is not physically prepared to carry a child in her womb. A pregnant woman bears a great deal of risk and responsibility. A pregnant woman must take care of herself to ensure that the baby in her womb is well cared for. A pregnant woman should also be cautious about the foods she consumes because they can harm the baby in her womb. She must also refrain from engaging in any activity that could endanger the baby, such as drinking alcohol, smoking, lifting heavy objects, or overstressing herself. Hence, a woman’s health is considered in choosing an abortion.
Furthermore, a woman victimized by rape, incest, or other life-threatening situations must resort to abortion (Luchetta, 2022). Again, women’s rights are considered and emphasized by the sources here. A woman who experiences any of the abovementioned incidents is likely to be traumatized by what happened to her. As a result, the incident will psychologically impact the woman. Moreover, if this woman has been harmed, the chances of the baby being injured are high. For example, a rape victim will choose abortion because the baby will only serve as a reminder of what happened to her, which she does not want to remember.
Furthermore, a woman’s financial stability is a factor to consider when deciding on an abortion. The entire process of raising a child is prohibitively expensive. In this case, the media brings up the issue of economic stability. To begin, a baby in her mother’s womb requires frequent check-ups, medications, and other costly health care needs. The process of giving birth is also expensive, beginning with the hospital fee and continuing with the medications required after the baby is born, as well as the cost of the mother’s aftercare. The baby also requires several kinds of stuff, including milk, diapers, and other costly necessities. Hence, it is indeed expensive. An underpaid woman who has no partner or is unemployed cannot fulfill all motherhood obligations. As a result, women in difficult situations or who are poor choose abortion over childrearing. They are incapable of carrying out their responsibilities as mothers and may be unable to provide a better future for their children, so they will choose to abort them rather than allow them to live. Therefore, a woman’s financial ability is another significant reason for choosing abortion.
Even though the pro-choice movements advocate for valid and ample reasons, the government has enacted laws and policies restricting abortion in the United States, oblivious that these laws can harm society. In other states, long-dormant abortion restrictions are made by all-male legislatures with insufficient knowledge that, based on scientific studies, has also shaped abortion policy (Keveney, 2022). Hence, the laws may not be valid as it is viewed through men’s lenses. For example, research has repeatedly found that abortion affects Patients who are compelled to carry an unwanted pregnancy and are more likely to fall into poverty, experience job loss, and have lower earning potential (Butler, 2022). As a result, women barred from having abortions may suffer in the long run. It will begin in their careers, affecting their entire lives, and unfortunately, it will also affect the country as a whole. They may be classified as underemployed or unemployed in the worst-case scenario. As a result, this is one factor that harms society due to abortion restrictions.