The media practice of framing is perfectly demonstrated by the graphs of MSNBC's and FOX News' coverage of the 2008 presidential election. Framing is done to not only tell the audience about an issue, but to tell the audience how to think about that issue. It not only presents the facts, it also interprets them, leaving the audience with no role other than to sit back and enjoy the show. The practice of framing deals with which facts to include and what tone to set when reporting an story. News reporters will likely only include facts that will support the interpretation of the story that they are trying to instill in the audience. These graphs of MSNBC's and Fox News' coverage of the 2008 presidential election show how they framed their stories about presidential candidates by establishing a positive or negative tone. Over 70% of MSNBC's coverage of John McCain had a negative tone with only about 10% having a positive tone. Their coverage of Barack Obama, however, was only about 15% negative, with the rest of the coverage split between positive and neutral. Fox News, on the other hand, kept the tone of their coverage of these two candidates very similar. Both candidates were covered negatively about 40% of the time, with Obama receiving a little more positive coverage, which really surprises me. I definitely would have thought that FOX News would have covered the election in the same way as MSNBC, with the candidates switched. The graphs, however, show that MSNBC's coverage of the election was specifically framed toward supporting Obama, while Fox News' coverage does not seem like it was framed in support of either candidate.
The image of the graphs was found at http://www.verumserum.com/?p=16357
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