Framing Connections: Improving the Relationship between Rhetorical and Social Scientific Frame Studies, Including a Study of G.W. Bush’s Framing of Immigration

Abstract

We agree with recent scholarship that calls for more extensive efforts to bridge the divergent approaches to framing studies. However, several terminological and methodological barriers exist to finding common ground between social scientific and rhetorical frame scholarship. In response, we argue for a greater sense of methodological pluralism in frame studies. To make our argument, we outline the position of rhetoric in contemporary framing scholarship, propose points of contact that can serve as a reinforcing element with social scientific research, and include a brief case study to show how rhetorical framing can employ and build upon the advances of empirical studies in an analysis of competing frames used by President George W. Bush on the issue of immigration.