Discursive Frame

Defining discursive frame requires an examination of each term. In a narrow definition, discourse is the sum of a conversation, or speech, or some other unit of language communication. More commonly in academic use, discourse is conceptualized as originally defined by French social theorist Michel Foucault. Foucault focused on communication and meaning within a societal group and sees that a particular communication and meaning system is created within the group by objects, ritual, and the privileged: what the members of the particular group can talk about, where and how they can talk about it, and who can do the talking. With these limitations on the particular group culture, a discourse evolves as a system of thought reflexively created with particular ideas and beliefs, actions and practices, attitudes and preferences, and the subjects and worlds [Page 311]these systematically construct. Discourse is assumed to belong to or at least reflect a group or segment of society and is significant both by what is said and what is not said. Consequently, one commonly hears references to feminist discourses, or liberal discourses, or postcolonial discourses, or racialized discourses.

Within a particular discourse participants can make choices, sometimes subconsciously and sometimes strategically, about how to “hear” something or how to “say” something. This can be called framing. Erving Goffman set the foundation for current sociological and media concepts of framing with his position that unconsciously developed cognitive schemas or structures shape the way individuals perceive and represent reality. These frames, or cognitive perceptual structures, develop through communicative processes.