Budget and Taxes Resources:
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 Dear Colleague-
The narrative of "taxes are bad, tax cuts are good" currently dominates public discussions about taxes and budget spending. How can framing strategies provoke a more productive discussion that leads to policy support for reforming the budgeting process and tax system? Just in time for the public debate over how we fund our country's priorities, this new work builds on several years of research on how Americans understand and view government.
A new Frameworks toolkit, Talking About Budgets and Taxes, provides advocates with empirically-tested framing strategies for changing public perceptions on this topic. Our latest research shows that tapping into the value of "Prevention" and using a "Forward Exchange" simplifying model are effective for shifting previously held beliefs about budgets and taxes. In this way, taxes and budgets are viewed as a way to allocate today's resources to prevent social problems from becoming worse in the future. When taxes are perceived as shared responsibilities that lead to collective benefits accrued over time, the public is more likely to be receptive to constructive economic policy reforms.
The toolkit includes a Message Memo that explains and interprets the findings of the research. It also includes several valuable framing tools to help advocates apply this research in their work. Those tools include talking points for media interviews, a sample op-ed article, an FAQ sheet on common questions about budgets and taxes, and key framing guides that illustrate how to structure productive conversations with the public that lead to support for reform. It also includes a video (see below) demonstrating the power of the simplifying model to close the gap between expert and lay knowledge about budgets and taxes.
This toolkit was developed by the FrameWorks Institute for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Cheers,
FrameWorks
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Visualizing Budgets and Taxes
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 Want to listen in as ordinary people struggle to connect budgets to taxes? Want to know why the household budget analogy will kill you every time? Eavesdrop on our research process in this new trigger video (password: fw) that puts these views in the context of our overall findings on how the public thinks about budgets and taxes -- and what fuels that thinking. The video is a compilation of On-the-Street Interviews that show what dangers lurk in the "swamp" of current cultural models, and what prevents people from seeing how responsible budgets ensure the well being of communities and how taxes support those budgets. The video goes on to show advocates how to use the value "Prevention" and the simplifying model "Forward Exchange" to help people see how budgets and taxes are related, and why they are an important part of a well functioning society. As such, it serves as a useful primer to the array of research reports that inform it.
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New to Our Team
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MICHAEL BARAN has joined FrameWorks as a Senior Researcher. His past research has foc used on the cultural and cognitive factors influencing how children across different cultures learn about race, ethnicity, and other categories of identity. This research has taken him through Brazil, Guatemala, Spain, and the United States. Prior to joining FrameWorks, he taught courses on race and diversity, Latin America, child development, expository writing, and research methods at Harvard University and the University of Michigan. He has consulted for schools and businesses about a range of diversity-related issues. He also created two popular interactive iPhone apps: Guess My Race, targeted to teenagers and adults, and Who Am I? Race Awareness Game, designed for adults to play with younger children. Both apps were developed to make learning about race fun by integrating art, technology, and game play with academic insights from various disciplines. Michael holds a B.A. from Emory University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan.
SHANNON ARVIZU has joined FrameWorks this fall as a Senior Associate. She is a sociologist  trained in frame analysis to influence social, cultural, and technological change. She builds upon a social movement perspective to bring attention to the role that frames play in building powerful networks of individuals and organizations for desired social change. Her most recent research shows how an influential network of advocacy organizations used frame transformation to shift policies and industry practices towards clean car production in the U.S. auto industry. She has also documented how frames stimulate the development of civic identities amongst young people in the Middle East. In addition, Shannon has worked in the social media field as a writer, video journalist, and online campaign consultant. Shannon holds a B.A. in history from U.C. Berkeley, an M.A. in anthropology-sociology from the American University in Cairo, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University.
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There's a Method: Notes from the Field
(Media Content Analysis)
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Media Content Analysis is an important early stage of research in  Strategic Frame Analysis. In this method, FrameWorks researchers identify how a social issue is being discussed in the media. Of primary concern is whether the issue is being discussed episodically -- highlighting the emotional stories of individuals -- or thematically -- highlighting systems and environments of influence.
The size and scope of the Media Content Analysis vary greatly by project, but, in general, we conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses of hundreds of pieces of print, television, and radio news. Researchers code the media and identify definitional, causational, relational, and solution themes. They also pay close attention to the tone and messengers by which the information is being delivered. Is the messenger a "scientist," "parent," or "senator," and are they being "argumentative," "explanatory," or "pragmatic;" and what does that say about the problem and its solution?
Media Content Analysis gives us an initial picture of the frames that are drip drip dripping, as media scholar George Gerbner once described it, into the public discourse through a set of stable cultural models in mind. FrameWorks' unique contribution to this literature lies in its blending of research from the cognitive and social sciences. Findings from the media analysis are compared with results from the cultural models interviews to determine how media frames are likely to cue up certain cultural models, how media frames may support or conflict with existing models, and how those cultural models are likely to fill in information for the public when media accounts lack adequate evidence for causes or solutions. Read our recent media analysis on Child Mental Health for a sample of how this method can inform communications strategy.
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On the FrameWorks Night Table
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This is our second installment of a semi-regular feature in which we provide a sampling of the framing-related books stacked on our night tables. We invite submissions from colleagues in the field -- read a good book about framing lately?
Susan Bales, President and Founder
Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Random House, 1978.
Not for the faint of heart, this is a book about the social construction of the idea of the Orient and how that idea served multiple European purposes for centuries. Said offers a detailed description of the way that cultural models get embedded into scholarship, public thinking, literature and political actions. In this case, the idea that the Orient must be saved from itself and liberated by "superior cultures" is dissected and revealed as a kind of viral propaganda that is transmitted under the radar screen. While this book helps explain how the idea of liberating Islamic cultures finds such ready pick up in the minds of Westerners, it is also a book about otherizing more generally - how the process of objectifying other cultures takes place. In this way, it offers important lessons for issues of race and immigration in the US, as well as for foreign policy.
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