FRAMES IN THE 2016 POLITICAL MEDIA

In this article, “Trump and Cruz shift to trench warfare,” Politico focuses mostly on the horserace frame and the current race for delegates between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in light of the Arizona and Utah primaries. Trump has won 19 of the 29 states that have already held primaries or caucuses, giving him solid front runner status, but Cruz and Kasich have enough delegates between them to potentially keep Trump from reaching the necessary 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination. Though primarily focusing on the horserace frame, the article also has key elements of conflict and issue frames as it shows Cruz and Trump at conflict with one another, Trump at conflict with the GOP establishment, and also speaks to comments made by Trump and Cruz in the wake of the Brussels terrorist attack. Trump calls for “the return of torture to American policy” and poises himself as the candidate who can keep America safe by severely limiting immigration. Cruz, not wanting to be overshadowed again by Trump’s comments, calls for heightened police patrolling of Muslim neighborhoods.

This article similarly contains several frames, focusing mainly on candidate attributes and horserace frames between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It discusses where the candidates land on attributes like empathy, honesty, experience, and having the “right personality.” These are all specifically related to the attribute frame, but in the article they pit Clinton and Trump against each other using poll results to display how each candidate compares to one another in these attributes, making it an example of the conflict frame as well.  

Depending on where the reader or audience falls, I feel the primary impact of horserace and conflict journalism frames as relates to the GOP candidates is to update the Republican voters on where everyone stands to help them make their decision. Many just want to pick a “winner” and thus align themselves with Trump, casting their votes there in an effort to help him secure enough delegates. Others simply do NOT want Trump—and this horserace style frame can show them where to strategically or tactically cast their vote in an effort to keep delegates away from Trump.