Framing in an Interactive News Environment

Prevailing models of news framing effects focus on the influence of news frames on audience perceptions and attitudes toward social and political issues. These models pay scant attention to the way people select news stories today and how the media environment can influence who receives the frames that circulate in news discourse. Recent research in audience selectivity in news exposure suggests that people relying on high-choice media, such as news websites and social media, tend to choose news stories consistent with their personal topical preferences and preconceptions. Moreover, people are often intentional in how they select news stories; indeed, audience intentionality likely influences aggregate-level exposure to specific frames. A better understanding of the roles of frames in public discourse will come from studying framing effects within the context of how people choose what to consume. This chapter will integrate current research in framing effects with what communication researchers know about audience-selective exposure. An empirical study will test expectations about the effects of frames on news selection, and it will explore how aggregate perceptions of an issue are influenced by audience selectivity. In this way, we hope to move the study of framing effects in directions that more fully reflect the current media environment.