A FRAMING OF FUTURE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS 2014 IN A SOCIAL MEDIA CONTEXT

Abstract

Communication in marketing has always been a continuous conceptual hybrid of input from various domains: marketing, P.R., communication, sociology. With the constant transformation of web 2.0. phenomenon, the demarcation lines between these domains and their influence has become more blured and difficult to pinpoint. As a result, specific research methods and theories have become adaptable instruments, laying the path for grounded theory approaches or new research methods. Framing theory, having as basis that the media focuses attention on certain events and then places them within a field of meaning, has shifted towards organisations, and further on, to institutions. Framing is a quality of communication that leads others to accept one meaning over another. Framing theory suggests that how something is presented (the “frame”) influences the choices people make. In online communicative contexts, their own personal framings allows the communicative actors to make use of language and forethought so that specific embodiments of future evolutions may be depicted. In our case, we shall focus on the topic: European Parliament elections, which are to take place in 2014, and on the manner in which it has been framed in two online chat session with three MEPs. It is our intention to identify the framing techniques used, the framing links and the framing alignments.