CANCELLED Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability Working Group Research Seminar: Dr Harsh Jha

Title: Hostile Frame Takeover: Co-optation of Security Master Frame in the German Nuclear Debate

Date: Wednesday 13 September 2023

Location: NUBS.2.03

Time: 09:30-11:00

Guest Speaker: Dr Harsh Jha, Cardiff University

If you would like to attend, please register using the following link:

Hostile Frame Takeover: Co-optation of Security Master Frame in the German Nuclear Debate

Abstract:

Despite growing attention to framing contests as important discursive struggles in articulating societal challenges and their solutions, most research focuses on competition over which frame becomes dominant. The process of how macro-level frames themselves are subject to processes of meaning elaboration is less well understood, yet central for understanding field dynamics. In this paper, we focus on how a master frame—seen as relatively stable macro-level meaning structure—can itself get co-opted, such that it is reinterpreted to support a logic of action that is contrary to the original usage. Using a mixed-methods approach, combining topic modeling with qualitative analysis to examine the German nuclear energy media debate, we explore the hostile co-option of the dominant security master frame, which then developed from a rationale against nuclear energy to one in favor of nuclear. We identify two mechanisms explaining this process. First, an intended broadening of the master frame through making it porous and infusing it with new diagnostic claims. Second, reversing the frame by pointing to conflicts within the broadened meanings, constructing discursive alliances and selectively retaining the new meaning while detaching the original meaning. We synthesize these findings to offer a theoretical model explaining the frame co-optation process.