Framing is how something is presented to you. Everything we are told or shown is actually framed in a certain way. Things can be framed to help us understand them better or see something we were missing, but they rarely are. Most things are framed in a way to get you agree with the presenter of the information. That is when information can become propaganda. This is true everywhere: media, politics, religion, business, society, etc…
Consider the picture below.
The center panel is the entire scene. The left panel tells a story of oppression and brutality while the right panel tells a story of hope and humanity. Both panels are parts of the same picture, but alone they tell two very different stories. Using the same real evidence, two conflicting conclusions can be logically drawn. This is an illustration of how framing can be used to make you believe something about something that is not necessarily true.
I would like to introduce you to this series on Bigger Picture Thinking.
What is it? Bigger Picture Thinking tries to break you from the frames of information you have been presented so you can see, quite literally, the Bigger Picture. It stops you from looking just the left and right panels and gets you to take in the whole picture for what it truly is and not what someone else wants you to think of it.
How do you do that? By critically thinking for yourself. Take a step back and try to understand what forces are really at work. Remove yourself that the limited scope you were presented and think on a larger scale.
Never believe anything until you truly understand it. If someone tells you something, try to understand why and how. If you don’t understand why or how, ask them. If they can’t tell you, then you know they are not as knowledgeable as they might seem. This does not mean they are wrong. For example, if someone tells you e = mc^2, but can’t tell you what it means, it does not mean the idea is wrong. Don’t judge an idea simply by how someone presents it.
The solution? Research the answer and see what different, conflicting sources have to say about it. Going to different sources makes sure you know all sides of argument. For example, asking 100 different employees at the same company about a product is not as useful as asking 5 of their competitors about it. After you know all the sides of an argument, you can then come to your own informed conclusion about it.
Just like how knowing yourself allows you to make better decisions for yourself, knowing about things let you make better decisions about them. Bigger Picture Thinking lets you do just that; make better, informed decisions. The alternative is being susceptible to propaganda and therefore, not really being in control of your decisions. But then again, that is the point of propaganda: to get you to do what you wouldn’t have normally done had you truly been informed.
Having information presented to you in a framed manner is not always bad. It can be very useful as an education tool, but you should be aware that it is being framed so that you understand that there is something more than what you are being told.
There are many ways to tell if the information you are presented is being framed. The easiest is whether you are hearing only positives or only negatives of something. Nothing doesn’t have its benefits or drawbacks. If you are hearing only one or the other, then understand that whoever is giving you is framing it and not giving you the entire story. Politics and marketing are the two areas you see this the most.
