A Study Of Framing And Reframing Of Political Discourses

This thesis focuses on the analysis of American political issue－employment－raised in the2012American presidential election. In light of the frame theory and multimodal metaphortheory, we compare the employment frames made by the two presidential candidates (Obamaand Romney) and how the cartoons reframe the above two different employment frames.Through analysis of the debate texts, we find that Obama’s employment frame is middle-classoriented, and Romney’s employment is balance oriented.Multimodal metaphor analysis shows that colors used in all the cartoons are dim, implyingthat there is no hope. Every cartoon carries with them a text to express public opinions andcomplaints. Romney and Obama have been pictured as Republican Donkey and DemocraticElephant in some cartoons. There is also some historical allusion behind these cartoons, such asCharlotte’s Web, Halloween Day. The cartoons are full of sarcasm and metaphors. Every cartooncontains a metaphor. Through the analysis of the source domain and target domain of thesemetaphors, we can find that Obama is pursuing for middle-class oriented frame, but he alsowants to get support from rich people. It is the same with Romney’s balance-oriented frame. Inthis way, the cartoons we have randomly chosen reframe the employment frames the twopresidential candidates have previously set.We have come to the conclusion that American people show no trust to the two frames setby the two presidential candidates. Middle class people do not believe in Obama’s middle-classoriented frame, not to mention Romney’s balance-oriented frame.