Selçuk Ün. Sos. Bil. Ens. Der. 2022; (48): 446-457 - İletişim / Derleme - Framing Theory in the Age of Social Media M. Salih GÜRAN * Hüseyin ÖZARSLAN ** ABSTRACT The Internet age has converged various traditional mainstream media institutions as well alternative media platforms together into a hybrid media system with the New Media system that includes alternative media like social media, in particular Twitter and Facebook. Framing Theory and frame analysis has been found functional and suitable for researching complex social media communications and also the interplay of the social media with mainstream traditional media. We reviewed the literature of framing analysis in relation to social media, virtual communities and social movements to present a brief overview of the practical and theoretical potentials of frame analysis and also the particularities and problems that arose in regard to the dynamic nature of social media. As a result, frame analysis presents an even broader potential for the research of dynamic communication processes in the fast lives of virtual communities and the vast effects of online interaction of social, political, commercial institutions. Keywords: Frame Analysis, Social Media, Mass Media, Virtual Communities. Sosyal Medya Çağında Çerçeveleme Teorisi ÖZ Geleneksel medyanın büyük ölçüde internet ortamına taşınmasıyla birlikte, sosyal medyanın farklı platformlarının (özellikle Twitter ve Facebook olmak üzere) farklı özellikleriyle birlikte hibrit/melez bir medya sistemi oluşturmuştur. Çerçeveleme Teorisi ve çerçeve analizi, kitle iletişim araştırmalarındaki işlevselliğini ve yaygınlığını yeni medya çağında geliştirmeye devam et mektedir. Özellikle Twitter ve Facebook’un yeni medya sisteminin bütünleştirici iletişim ekseni olarak kullanılması çerçeveleme mekanizmalarının aktif olarak kullanılmasını yaygınlaştırmıştır. Çerçeveleme ve sosyal medya literatüründeki güncel tartışmaları inceleyen çalışmamız, hem sosyal medyanın sahip olduğu farklı çerçeveleme dinamiklerine dikkat çekmekte, hem de kitlesel iletişimin, kişiler arası iletişimden kazandığı bazı özellikleri de kullanarak sanal toplulukların hızlı oluşum ve etkileşim (tartışma) süreçlerinde nasıl kullanıldığına dikkat çekmektedir. Bu nedenle, gerek toplumsal hareketlerin, gerekse siyasal ve toplumsal iletişim süreçlerinin incelenmesinde çerçeve analizi eskisinden daha büyük bir potansiyel sunmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Çerçeve Analizi, Sosyal Medya, Kitle İletişim, Sanal Topluluklar Introduction While the concept of socially-culturally cultivated psychological schemata for the judgement of social interactions has roots in psychology as early as by Piaget (1952) and Barttlett (1932) who found that individuals' schemata and stereotypes influenced the interpretation of novel "schema-foreign" information. Psychological frames have been introduced as more applicable and precise procedures by Bateson in 1972 as "a spatial and temporal bounding of a set of interactive messages" (p. 191), as a kind of metacommunication, which directed the participants’ understanding of their social interaction by current roles and rules. Thus, frames also possessed the power of the choice for inclusion and exclusion of certain aspects of the relationship in the interaction. Symbolic interactionist sociologist Erwing Goffman systematized the concept of framing and frames into a constructionist theory in his book “Framing Theory” (1974) defining frames as “schemata of interpretation” that enable the individual “to locate, perceive, identify, and label” events and situations in their social world (p. 21) and thus give meaning to them for possible action. Entman, (1993) defined individual frames as “mentally stored clusters of ideas that guide individuals’ processing of information” (Entman, 1993, p. 53) that he makes into a reference frame of long-term political views and short-term issue frames. Gamson and Modigliani (1987) in their research of social movements developed a concept of media frames as “a central organizing idea or story line that provides meaning to an unfolding strip of events . . . The frame suggests what the controversy is about, the essence of the issue” (p. 143).” Tuchman (1978) adds to this that this framing by the media is an essential feature of news (p. 193). Gitlin (1980) asserts * Doç. Dr., Gümüşhane Üniversitesi, msguran@yahoo.com ** Doç. Dr., Gümüşhane Üniversitesi, huseyinozarslan@gmail.com Makalenin Gönderim Tarihi: 30.04.2022; Makalenin Kabul Tarihi: 25.07.2022 doi: 10.52642/susbed.1142562