About

News Frames is about media framing, and draws on the work of cognitive linguists such as George Lakoff (whose work on Frame Semantics is the main source). Its purpose is to popularise the subject beyond the superficial understanding which confuses framing with “spin”. Frame Semantics started as the theory that words activate/evoke semantic frames of encyclopaedic/situational ‘meaning’ – it addresses how conceptual metaphors, narratives, etc, shape our thinking. News Frames looks at how media framing reinforces various moral worldviews and political belief systems – at a “deeper” level than surface language and “facts”. For those new to the subject, the static pages listed on our site map are a good place to start.

Who are we?

News Frames is written by Brian Dean, creator of Media Hell, NSPCO & Anxiety Culture (now an old ‘legacy’ site, which was praised by the Guardian as “A witty, alternative look at the working character of contemporary society”, and featured on both Channel 4 and BBC). See also Brian’s new blog about Robert Anton Wilson, RAW semantics.

Brian has written regular columns for the Guardian newspaper, The Idler and Sleaze magazine – and has appeared in the Independent, Big Issue, Alternative Press Review, etc. He is author of, and contributor to, a number of books, including Lazy Person’s Guide to Framing: Decoding the News Media (Futura, 2014) and Point Taken: A Brief Thematic Reader (Ed: Elizabeth Penfield, Longman, 2003 ).

Bio: honours degree in architecture from Bristol University; worked as a systems designer/developer, logical data analyst and business analyst in several large companies, and, more recently, as a linguistics study researcher, independent writer and counterculture magazine editor.

[Right: Brian Dean’s Anxiety Culture project featured in an exhibition at The Cube Microplex, Bristol, in June 2004]

Note on News Frames Twitter account (which used to be here): – this ran for a number of years, with several thousand followers, and enjoyed retweets from some quite prominent people who I admire – George Monbiot, Frankie Boyle, etc).  I ended up deleting it for some of the reasons given here.

Contact us

We welcome feedback, comments & queries (please use the form below, or email me direct at “email [at] mediahell [dot] org”).

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