Blog Assignment #3: Simple Framing

Lakoff’s explanation of framing can easily relate to the concepts discussed in previous class discussions.  According to Lakoff, “Frame development takes time and work.” Lakoff also discusses how the conservative think tank has been practicing positive framing for over 40 years. He brakes this down by discussing how framing a discussion on ‘Tax Cuts’ can immediately conjure up an image of the increase of bot money and jobs as said through the conservative rhetoric. During the discussion on the normalization of privilege a large focus was used on the word racism.  When most people here the word racist their minds immediately turn to items such as the KKK, White Power, white vs. black, and other issues most highlighted during the civil rights movement. What they don’t usually think about is discrimination of Latinos, Native Americans, etc. Normalization of privilege is can simply be but as a group of people coming together and deciding what is their ‘normal’. Once the ‘normal’ is defined for the group, the group begins giving ‘privileges’ to the ‘norm’ as more people agree and meet the criteria of the ‘norm’ the group grows. This growing group can be everything from a small club formed by children to the creation of a new town.

Rhetorical analysis helps us understand the discursive construction of consent, the normalization of privilege, and framing by helping to give a deeper level of understanding not only to their definition but the understanding and abstract thought required to comprehend their true meaning. Through rhetorical analysis a reader can draw out what the article is truly saying versus the spin the author either intentionally or unintentionally has written in. A good example is listening to a song. When someone hears a new song their brains start to process beat, rhythm, voice, arrangement, and so on to determine whether or not they like the song. Some people go one step further. They listen to the actual lyrics of the song. By paying attention to the lyrics, the listener can truly determine if the song is worth listening to again. For example, on the family friendly TV show “American Idol”, Katy Perry performed her new song with Kanya West entitled E.T. (extraterrestrial) Here is a sampling of the lyrics for Kanya West’s part:

I got a dirty mind
I got filthy ways
I'm tryna Bath my Ape in your Milky Way
I'm a legend, I'm irreverent
I be reverand
I be so fa-a-ar up, we don't give a f-f-f-f-ck
Welcome to the danger zone
Step into the fantasy
You are not invited to the otherside of sanity
They calling me an alien
A big headed astronaut
Maybe it's because your boy Yeezy get ass a lot

I know a bar out in Mars
Where they driving spaceships instead of cars
Cop a Prada spacesuit about the stars
Getting stupid ass straight out the jar
Pockets on Shrek, Rockets on deck
Tell me what's next, alien sex
I'ma disrobe you, than I'mma probe you
See I abducted you, so I tell ya what to do
I tell ya what to do, what to do, what to do

The lyrics do not leave much to the imagination to the subject matter that is being talked to. So if you like the lyrics more than likely you will like the song, thus in the ‘norm’ of people who like it. I’m outside the norm, because I do not like the song nor do I believe it was appropriate for a family friendly show.