To a web developer, "framing" is the annoying (and technically illegal) practice of placing another Web site's content into a frameset document on your own site, thus making their content look like your own. A Web site that is the victim of framing can stop it with a couple of lines of JavaScript code, but this isn't often done until it needs to be.

In most ethical arguments, if you keep asking the other person "Why do you think that way?" long enough, you'll ultimately run into some fundamental values that are difficult to argue about. You could say they are the bedrock of that person's world view. A member of the political left might say "Because it is important to be fair and promote equality". A teenager might say: "Because it's cool". A fundamentalist muslim might say "Because the Quran says so".

So if you want to get a group of teenagers to buy your product for example, you simply need to convince them that the product is cool. Or if you have a group of fundamentalist muslims that you need to get to do something, you need to convince them that what you are suggesting is not in conflict with the Quran. If there are some aspects you are unsure about (like for example that your product sucks or your plan is evil) you might simply forget to mention about them. And you might also use words that have lots of positive connotations.

This is what framing is about. It is a technique of propaganda, and besides the offending examples above, it can also be used on any other group, or also a single person, of course. There are actually two things that the word "frame" might mean here. You tailor the message so that it fits with the recipient's "reference frame", his world view, but you might also "frame" the message like a photographer, omitting aspects that are less pleasant.

Framing is used in many areas, like advertising and politics.

Fram"ing, n.

1.

The act, process, or style of putting together a frame, or of constructing anything; a frame; that which frames.

2. Arch. & Engin.

A framework, or a sy of frames.

Framing chisel Carp., a heavy chisel with a socket shank for making mortises.

 

© Webster 1913.

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