Shaping Your Emotions: The Use of Prospect Theory in Mass Media
The prospect theory explains mass media manipulations.
In fact, the use of this prominent theory is much more comprehensive. For example, the framing effect perfectly applies to mass media and politics.
Journalists may present news, investigations, and even analytical materials to fit the specific pattern and stimulate certain emotions of the audience.
Public officers praise themselves for savings and efficiencies, which is the positive framing.
Meanwhile, activists tirelessly uncover corruption instances and political plots, i.e., their framing is extensively negative.
We will now analyze the framing effect in pursuing anti-corruption agenda by different actors - public executives, politicians, and activists.
Despite the polar emotions they induce, the toolkit they're using is all the same.
Framing, i.e., stimulating the right emotions.
One of the most prominent findings of the prospect theory by Kahneman and Tversky is that "losses loom larger than gains."
This law concludes that we tend to be risk-averse when confronted with gains and risk-seeking when facing losses.
The framing effect means that our preferences for risk-seeking or aversion can be influenced by providing logically consistent information framed in terms of gains or losses.
For example, positive framing stimulates successful negotiations. In the face of the deal benefits presented to us, we will try to avoid the risks of deal-breaking and accept the offer.
The adverse effect of negative framing of COVID newsmaking
On the opposite, negative framing stimulates risk-seeking.
In this study of COVID newsmaking and its effect on citizens' behavior, the following observations have been made:
"...if governments want to motivate risk-aversion, they should rely on gain frames instead of loss frames (i.e., focusing on the number of lives that can be saved if citizens incorporate the advice to integrate preventative behaviors into their daily routines).
Yet, daily media coverage may impede this goal – as most legacy and alternative media coverage about the coronavirus contains a strong negativity bias that focuses on losses. Even though preferences for interventions may not directly be affected, risk-aversion may be an essential outcome in times of a pandemic."
The typology of news stories' framing
Communication sciences define framing as how issues are constructed and presented in news stories to fit the audience's consumption and stimulate specific interpretations.
Frames provide four functions:
- defining and diagnosing a problem;
- finding its source;
- providing a judgment;
- suggesting a solution.
Episodic and thematic frames in the news: provocation and generalization
News stories can be divided into episodic and thematic frames.
Episodic reports illustrate separate issues without the need to analyze the underlying cause. They involve eye-capturing images, loud messages, and provocative headlines to attract sudden attention.
The thematic frame depicts issues more broadly and abstractly by placing them in a historical or societal context and analyzing causes and trends of structural phenomenons.
The statistical analysis of the anti-corruption news coverage
While the following numbers relate to the US anti-corruption agenda from 2002-to 2011, some readers may find it representative of their local instances of similar issue coverage.
It is fascinating how the typical newsmaking toolset applies across different countries over decades with the same logic (or absence thereof) structure and intensity.
- 38% of related media content has been occupied by investigations, while only 17% suggested systemic analysis or remedial actions;
- experts were the least popular information source (6%) even losing to politicians (10%);
- episodic framing has been used in 68% of sample cases, while thematic ones were twice less popular.
My personal favorite is this one (I'm sure my Ukrainian audience is going to like this either):
"To sum up, many episodic articles interpreted the scandals in strongly populist terms, emphasizing the criminal and sensational aspects of a corrupt politician's individual behavior.
It was also found that episodic news stories often dramatized corruption scandals... This dramatization often leads to the loss of a systemic approach to corruption.
Many episodic articles claim that the problem belongs to the sphere of ethics, not to the institutional, structural, or societal sphere."
Logical thinking restricts opinion manipulation
As we started from the prospect theory, we emphasized that negative framing triggers risk-seeking behavior.
Negative frames invoke the reliance on isolated "success stories," as if those could defeat the corruption individually.
From the strategic perspective, negative frames should stimulate our risk-seeking side to vote for an alternative candidate or support the change of public executives in favor of new blood.
Our emotional side gets under attack when a particular agenda is thrown at us using framing techniques. Thus the extensive use of investigations, avoidance of expert opinions, and the prevalence of thematic frames.
Most importantly, when personal business or political interests shape the news agenda, the systemic nature of corruption gets out of sight.
We concentrate on individual cases where evil businessmen or politicians impersonate the problem. Then we lose focus on the system that nurtured them.
Just as we suggested to be mindful of manipulations during negotiations, we need to be aware of newsmaking frames and avoid being shortsighted or vulnerable to biased thinking.
The collective mind manipulation techniques may develop technically, but they're the excellent old one-trick pony conceptually.
More information on this and other exciting topics could be found in "The Technology Procurement Handbook." It represents 23 years of experience, billions of dollars worth of successful sourcing projects, and 1000s of hours spent on research, analysis, and content creation for the most demanding professional readers.
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