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MEDIA | Noah Brier

It's All About the Frame

Behavioral economics helps explain why deregulation of media is a problem.

April 27, 2006 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 3 COMMENTS

On the plane to San Francisco on Monday morning I finally got around to reading "The Marketplace of Perceptions" from Harvard Magazine. It's all about behavioral economics, a field I can't help but be fascinated by. It's basically the place that economics/finance meets my marketing/cultural studies world. The big point of it is that "the ways in which alternatives are framed -- not simply their relative value -- heavily influence the decisions people make." Of course they do. Seems obvious, but in a world where it was long believed that people acted in their best interest at all times, this must have been, and still is, a hard one to swallow.

What was most interesting about the article, however, wasn't overly finance-centric. Rather, it discussed the political implications of the idea of framing.

We have had 30 years of deregulation in the United States, freeing up markets to work their magic. “Is that generally welfare-enhancing, or not?� Wanner asks. “Framing can call that into question. Everyone agrees that there’s informational asymmetry—so we have laws that ensure drugs are tested, and truth-in-advertising laws. Still, there are subtle things about framing choices that are deceptive, though not inaccurate. We have the power of markets, but they are places where naive participants lose money. How do we manage markets so that the framing problem can be acknowledged and controlled? It’s an essential question in a time of rising inequality, when the well-educated are doing better and the poorly educated doing worse.�

I think that's a really big point. I tried a couple times to explain why, but it wasn't coming out right so I decided to just throw the quote out there and see if anyone else bites.

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COMMENTS

1barbara

I'll bite. I think the answer lies in media education -- children need to be taught that all information -- TV news, textbooks, infomercials, websites -- is mediated by someone with some bias. Because appearance is reality -- unless you've learned to analyze and evaluate what you see. I think you talked about this in your piece on filtering. You have to be cognizant of whose filter you're looking through. I've long suspected that our schools do not teach media literacy intentionally, because they want students to accept their authority without question. Once you expose the idea that all information -- even what your teachers tell you -- comes with someone's spin, you risk dissent. There's no time for that in the curriculum, especially with the big test coming up :-)

April 27, 2006

2Leah Brier

COMPLETELY UNREALTED TO THE CURRENT POST BUT.....I would like at least mention of my show and perhaps a small review?!?! PLEASE?????????????

April 28, 2006

3jeff

I'M SHY!!! I CONFESS IT, I'M SHY!!!

April 30, 2006