A Survey of Computational Framing Analysis Approaches (2022)

Abstract: Framing analysis is predominantly qualitative and quantitative, examining a small dataset with manual coding. Easy access to digital data in the last two decades prompts scholars in both computation and social sciences to utilize various computational methods to explore frames in large-scale datasets. The growing scholarship, however, lacks a comprehensive understanding and resources of computational framing analysis methods. Aiming to address the gap, this article surveys existing computational framing analysis approaches and puts them together. The research is expected to help scholars and journalists gain a deeper understanding of how frames are being explored computationally, better equip them to analyze frames in large-scale datasets, and, finally, work on advancing methodological approaches.

## introduction vaccine hesitancy has long been recognized as a problem despite research evidence favoring the vaccine's effectiveness @xcite . understanding how the vaccination is framed by news media might provide a solution to vaccine hesitancy because a frame determines "how [people] evaluate [a problem] and choose to act upon it" @xcite . like this, exploration of many other problems (e.g., gun violence) warrants analysis of frames, especially in large-scale datasets in this era. traditionally, researchers explore frames using qualitative and quantitative methods that require manual labor and can handle small amounts of data @xcite . production of and easy access to large volumes of digital data in the last two decades prompt scholars to harness the exploration of frames in such big data computationally @xcite @xcite . prior studies proposed various computational methods (e.g., topic modeling and neural network). as the scholarship is growing, a scarcity appeared regarding a comprehensive understanding and resources of computational framing analysis methods @xcite . researchers might be confused with multiple approaches to this analysis, raising questions: how many computational framing analysis methods exist, and which one they should apply? to address the problem and help researchers with such questions, we survey existing computational framing analysis approaches and put the methods and relevant resources together. as such, the survey is guided by the following three research questions: rq1. what computational methods do researchers use to explore frames in large-scale datasets? rq2. how do researchers conceptualize a frame in computational framing analysis studies? rq3. how do researchers use computational methods in exploring frames? the primary contributions of this article are: a) it provides a comprehensive understanding and resources of existing computational framing analysis methods and puts them together for interested scholars to gain deeper knowledge and start building on that, and b) it adds new thoughts to the ongoing discussion on advancing the computational methods of framing analysis. this section provides a conceptual understanding of framing. a classic example of framing concerns a debate over whether to permit ku klux klan to hold a public rally. one news story with the headline "ku klux klan tests osu's commitment to free speech" reported the rally as a free speech issue, while another one with the headline "possible ku klux klan rally raises safety concerns" reported it as a disruption of public order. as reflected in the headlines, the two stories used different frames. people who read the free speech news story expressed higher tolerance toward kkk's rally compared to those who read the public order news story @xcite . figure 1 shows similar frames deployed in two news headlines on the 2022 buffalo mass shooting. scholars are not agreed upon any unified framing definition @xcite . however, a prominent definition, widely used in both traditional and computational framing studies, was provided by @xcite . he says: to frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described. (p. 52) as per this definition, a frame is largely determined by its outcome effects, such as four functions: a) defining problems, b) diagnosing causes, c) making judgments, and d) suggesting remedies. the functions depend on how some selected aspects of "perceived" reality are made salient. in 2003, he defined it a bit differently, "framing entails selecting and highlighting some facets of events or issues, and making connections among them so as to promote a particular interpretation, evaluation, and/or solution" @xcite . this definition seems to have made a few shifts, such as from "causal interpretation" to "interpretation," from "moral evaluation" to "evaluation," and from "treatment recommendation" to "solution." the salient aspects are also interconnected. while approaching frames as cultural phenomena, @xcite identified a frame as a cultural " @xcite of meaning that includes a set of core concepts and ideas," including "conflicts, metaphors, myths, and narratives" (p. 160). a frame has also been explained as "a central organizing idea. . . for making sense of relevant events, suggesting what is at issue" @xcite . @xcite defined a frame from the sociological perspective and focused on six aspects (italicize): "frames are organizing principles that are socially shared and persistent over time, that work symbolically to meaningfully structure the social world" (p. 11). in a recent definition, d'angelo (2018) defined news framing as "how journalists, their sources, and audiences work within conditions that shape the messages they construct as well as the ways they understand and interpret these messages" (p. xxiv). to describe a frame's aspect highlighting some selected facets of an issue or event, @xcite utilized an analogy that "choosing language to frame people's actions and events is like moving a telescope into position" (p. 125). the selected aspects are then coherently organized in a way to make an argument, which finally promotes a particular interpretation, evaluation, and solution. this organization of selected aspects could even be subtle, as framing also "refers to subtle alterations in the statement or presentation of judgment and choice problems" @xcite ). another crucial aspect of framing is "to choose one particular meaning (or set of meanings) over another" @xcite ) that is also supported by @xcite , who says a frame "operates by selecting and highlighting some features of reality while omitting others" (p. 53). ## method we utilized three ways to identify and select relevant articles for a comprehensive understanding of computational framing analysis methods. first, we searched on scopus, an abstract and citation database of elsevier, using relevant keywords: ("computational framing analysis" or "computational frames analysis" or (("frame analysis" or "framing analysis") and "computational"). it provides 95 articles in the english language. we manually read their abstracts and sorted out 13 articles relating to computational framing analysis. in the sorting process, we read the articles' method sections if needed to make the decision. other 82 articles were excluded due to their irrelevance. the excluded articles were related to "frames" in other fields, such as building structures (e.g., 2d plane frames) and mechanical engineering. second, we searched on google scholar using the exact key-words and included articles until the third page as no relevant article was found on the third page. this gave us ten relevant articles. six articles were common in both the scopus and the google scholar searches, resulting in 17 unique articles from both sources. third, while reading through the 17 selected articles, we tracked down 20 more relevant articles cited in some of those articles. the 20 articles did not appear in the scopus and google scholar searches probably because of the different keywords and phrases used in their titles and abstracts. finally, we got a total of 37 articles selected for this survey (see figure 2 ). the articles involve journals and conferences in both computation and social science disciplines. reading through the articles and their supplemental materials (e.g., coding schema guiding the annotation), if any, we utilized an inductive way to scrutinize various aspects, including a) framing conceptualization, b) functions of computational framing analysis approaches, and c) results and their interpretation. we reported available datasets, codes, and other relevant resources, if any. ## analysis this section presents an analysis of the selected articles in two broad parts. the first part answers rq1, and the second part answers rq2 and rq3. ## discussion and conclusion in this article, we surveyed 37 empirical studies and reported on nine computational approaches, three coding schema, and annotated corpora of how they conceptualize frames and utilize various computational methods to explore frames in large-scale datasets. overall, existing methods and relevant resources are put together in this article. in the absence of a comprehensive understanding and resources of computational framing analysis methods, this article's insights will benefit framing scholars, especially those who are new, to gain deeper knowledge in this single article and build on that in further exploring frames in big data.