Framing is what this blog is about - finding the part of your audience's heart that already agrees with you and switching it on.
In politics, George Lakoff is the expert framer on the left, and Frank Luntz is the expert framer on the right. Luntz's side has been more effective, but maybe that's because the right is willing to follow his advice more faithfully than the left is willing to learn from Lakoff.
My pet peeve? When people stray from George Lakoff's advice in the title of his book Don't Think of an Elephant - in other words, don't adopt your opponents' frame. You can't rebut by starting with the imagery they're using against you. Violators of this rule include the Coffee Party that chose a name meant to conjure up the Tea Party it opposes, and political talk shows that think they're rebutting opponents' arguments when they repeat them verbatim, like Liberadio in my home town.
I heard an interview to the person that thought out the Coffee Party, she indicated that she was frustrated by the Tea Party's way of engaging with reality (my words), it appears that you could have a point there, but she also said that the Tea Party is based on something that was thrown away, that the movement's icon is what the Patriots had decided not to "drink", they saw Tea as an Imperial symbol so they started the love for Coffee in the USA.
ReplyDeleteDon't even get me started on Liberadio.
ReplyDelete