What’s This All About?
Advocate’s College
January 6, 2011
Frames Create Reality
“The way in which the world is
imagined determines at any
particular time what men will do.”
-Walter Lippman, 1921
-(courtesy of Dr. Frank Gilliam)
Frames Influence Decisions
“Every frame defines the issue,
explains who is responsible, and
suggests potential solutions. All of
this is conveyed by images,
stereotypes, or anecdotes.”
- Charlotte Ryan, Prime Time Activism, 1991
Message Development
• What’s wrong?
– We have disinvested in our children by not funding
physical education.
• Why does it matter?
– This endangers the health of the next generation.
– We have a responsibility to provide children a fair
chance to be strong and successful.
• What should be done?
1) Physical education must be part of an overall healthy
education.
2) The legislature must provide adequate funds for
complete education.
Message Development
• What’s wrong?
– We have left the food industry to determine the diet
and health of our children.
• Why does it matter?
– This endangers the health of the next generation.
– We have a responsibility to provide children a fair
chance to be strong and successful.
• What should be done?
1) Limit availability of fast food outlets.
2) Increase the availability of affordable, nutritious
foods.
Values Matter
• Are you leading with “Level 1”
Values to shape a “big picture”
understanding of the issue being
discussed?
• Are you answering the “why
should I care” question?
Levels of Thinking
• Level One – Big ideas:
protection, justice, family well-being,
opportunity, prosperity
• Level Two – Issues:
the environment, housing, children’s
issues, workforce development
• Level Three – Policies:
bycatch, housing trust fund, SCHIP
presumptive eligibility, EITC
The Benevolent Community
• Are you elevating notions of shared fate and
the common good – the values that give rise
to public action and a role for government?
• Are you speaking to your audience as
citizens, not just consumers?
• Are you telling “system-stories” that evoke
the “landscape” of issues at play instead of
focusing only on “portraits” of the individuals
affected?
Aspiration not Desperation
• Are you telling a story of hope and
aspiration or an overwhelming crisis
story?
• Are you offering solutions? Do they
seem attainable, with pragmatic steps
for getting there?
Good Storytelling Tools
• Are you using the tools of good
storytelling – analogies, metaphors and
the “public structures model” – to create
understanding?
• Do your numbers confuse or illuminate?
Can you use “social math” to help give
large or abstract numbers context and
create understanding?
Don’t Play on the Opposition’s Turf
What is your tone? Are you evoking
partisanship, “just politics” and a “fight”
between two sides or are you reasonable
and pragmatic, focusing on collective
solutions and government as a practical
tool?
Don’t Play on the Opposition’s Turf
Don’t “cue up” an opposing position and
then attempt to refute it.
Strategy Tools
• Use “message boxes” as a tool to help you
focus your message
• Values
• Vision
• Problem
• Solution
Strategy Tools
• Use “orthagonal” or unusual messengers to
tell your story
• Allies with no perceived self-interest
•
•
•
•
Teachers talking about hunger
Police officers talking about homelessness
Food Bank staff talking about housing costs
Health care providers talking about grocery stores
Strategy Tools
• Practice “message discipline”
• Create an “echo chamber”
Say it til you’re sick of hearing it, and then say it some
more
Strategy Tools
• Learn to pivot
• When asked an off the topic question – Pivot
• When pushed up against the wall – Pivot
• Have – and use – a “safety phrase”
“well Larry, we’re talking about the future of our children”
• Use your message box as a crutch – if it’s not in the
box, it doesn’t come out of your mouth
Stay Focused
Be deliberate in how you frame your issues.
Be disciplined in how you frame your issues.
Be persistent in how you frame your issues.
Be persistent in how you frame your issues.
Be persistent in how you frame your issues.
Be persistent in how you frame your issues.
Be persistent in how you frame your issues.