News Construction on the Pivots of Framing and Ideology: A Theoretical Perspective

Abstract

This paper reviews framing and the concept of ideology as imperatively intertwined theory in the construction of news by the media. It further explores each theory as independent media pivot in news making, and presents their coupling as a consequence of the inevitable link.  The paper also interrogates the two- framing and ideology- as connected concepts that are rarely interrogated in media studies but nevertheless influence the construction of new stories. The paper further indicates that the coupling of the concepts is further grounded on the social construction theory, positioning the argument that news production and its consequential framing is based on constructivism. The paper contends that when such mode of construction becomes embedded, reified and routinised in the newsroom, a journalistic ideology is forged and established that, consequentially, provides deterministic dominant modalities through which events, issues and personalities are framed and understood by the media. In particular, where the voices of the elites, through the journalist’s appropriation of official discourses, become the sustaining dominant, authentic, credible, and authoritative voices of news framing and construction, a news framing ideology becomes established; and all events, policies, and issues become constrained of extra interpretation except that which suits the journalistic ideological cause.

Keywords: framing, ideology, news construction, media, official discourses, journalistic ideology

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/9-2-06