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Polity’s framing research and consulting coherently informs message development and directs narrative framing. Dr Nelson’s PhD research at UTS was focused within Framing Theory and he has a first-class honours degree in Communication Theory.
Polity’s communication research model ensures clients understand which framing options are most important to connect with target audiences and are most likely to motivate people’s thinking.
UPCOMING WORKSHOP
To join one of our periodical industry or issue-focussed workshops, please register your interest. We will then be in touch to advise when the next session is available in your communication area and location.
If you would like to arrange a more tailored, organisation-specific session at your own workplace, please get in touch with us directly here
Please note, when you register an email will be sent asking you to confirm your interest and details.
“I would like to show that discourse is not a slender surface of contact, or confrontation, between a reality and a language, [but] that in analysing discourses themselves, one sees…the emergence of a group of rules [which] define not the dumb existence of a reality, nor the canonical use of a vocabulary, but the ordering of objects… as practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak.”
– Michel Foucault
Our framing research ethos
Framing in contemporary media practices is widely misunderstood, being typically implemented as media spin. It’s a fallacy that many audiences now routinely see through and which renders many communication strategies as impotent at best, or damaging at worst.
Target audience research is vital to ensure communication strategies are based on the perspectives (dominant cognitive frames) of those who will receive the messages, and not on the frames of those who are sending the messages.
What is more, frames do not emanate, nor are they received by audiences, as if from a clean slate. Rather, they exist and compete within multiple, overlapping and contested narratives. Understanding the current textual ‘zeitgeist’ of any given context then, is also vital for successful communication planning and message framing.
Polity’s Framing Workshops
Conducted by our managing director, Dr Darryl Nelson, Polity’s workshops provide communication professionals with the latest academic thinking and evidence from the field of communication Framing Theory. This is focused on key ideas related to relevant industry or social sectors or campaign issues, and particularly how theories intersect with the understanding of human biases within Behavioural Economics.
Our framing workshops comprise three focused sessions and typically run for half a day:
- Session 1: A walk-through the key tenets of Framing – What is a frame? How do frames work? Why are frames important?
This includes a look at the latest academic research and thinking in the field of communication Framing Theory and, where relevant, how frames intersect with behavioural (BE) biases.
- Session 2: A review of existing narratives and discussions in the public domain, to explore and establish the current relevant context and dominant frames.
- Session 3: A semiotics-based evaluation of strengths and weaknesses in current campaigns and public messages, based on the key learnings from sessions 1 and 2.
This includes a discussion of key imperatives and opportunities for more successful campaigns and messaging through effective narrative frames.
For both the open (issue-generic) or dedicated (client-specific) workshops, each of the sessions are tailored to be pertinent to the issue being workshopped.