Lesson Report:
Title
Media, Emotion, and Framing: Launching the Causation Unit
This lesson transitioned from foundational “frameworks� to the new unit on causation: how X leads to Y in politics. Using media as the entry point, students examined how media not only conveys information but also shapes audience emotions and judgments through framing, then practiced identifying framing strategies in headlines and narratives.
Attendance
– Absent: 2 students (Alma, Beck)
Topics Covered (chronological progression)
– Midterm debrief and course transition
– Instructor praised overall midterm performance (about half graded so far; quality ranged from good to excellent; no failing work seen yet).
– Announced shift to a new course phase focused on causation (how actions/events lead to outcomes), using media–politics as the first causal domain.
– What is “mediaâ€� and what are its goals?
– Elicited examples of media: news outlets (BBC, Euronews), films/documentaries, social media, live broadcast TV, books, newspapers, radio, speeches.
– Core functions articulated:
– Primary goal: share information (inform/educate/entertain via text, images, video, audio).
– Secondary goal: shape how the audience feels about the information (persuasion/valuation), including propaganda as an extreme case.
– Key insight: media doesn’t just report “there was a car crashâ€�; it cues how to feel about it (e.g., fear, sadness, anger).
– Individual reflection: identifying emotionally impactful media
– Prompt (written, in notebooks): choose one recent piece of media that evoked a strong emotion; in 1–2 sentences, note what it was and what emotion it elicited.
– Emphasis: specify the emotion (anger, sadness, happiness, shame, disgust, etc.).
– Partner work setup and analysis task
– Students paired in twos (teacher supported partner matching for those without a partner).
– Task Part 1: explain precisely why the media produced the emotion—identify the specific words, phrases, or images (not generalities) that triggered the response.
– Task Part 2: present your media to a partner; identify similarities in how both authors tried to evoke strong emotions (focus on techniques, not just that “both made me feel badâ€�).
– Whole-class share-outs: examples and technique extraction
– Film: The Pursuit of Happyness (bathroom scene with father and son sleeping in a public restroom; father holding son off the cold floor while protecting belongings). Emotions: sadness, empathy. Technique: vivid, unsettling imagery of vulnerability and deprivation; familiarity with protagonist intensifies impact.
– News article on an artificial heart. Emotion: wonder/awe. Technique: headline emphasizing breakthrough/novelty (student to retrieve exact wording later); scientific advancement framing.
– Crime/violence report including a mother’s extreme grief. Emotion: deep sadness. Technique: descriptive detail of a mother crying—universal, visceral image that cues pathos.
– Case where a killer posted a plan on LinkedIn. Emotions: horror, disgust, fear. Technique: shocking incongruity (premeditated violence communicated on a professional platform), explicit reference to a “planâ€� amplifying menace.
– Student’s personal family-related tragedy shared briefly. Recognition that personal connection dramatically heightens emotional response; no further probing for details.
– Film: The Help—arrest scene of Black domestic worker. Emotions: disgust/anger at injustice. Techniques: depiction of police brutality, coercive voice/power dynamics, and viewers’ prior familiarity with the character to heighten perceived unfairness.
– Courtroom “revengeâ€� case: a mother shoots the alleged rapist of her daughter in court. Emotion: sympathy for the mother. Techniques: disruption of expected courtroom order; notable detail that “nobody reactedâ€� immediately, which starkly contrasts with normal expectations and draws focus to perceived systemic failure.
– Introducing the concept: framing
– Framing defined for working use: the strategies media creators use to persuade audiences how to interpret and feel about an event.
– Reminder: media has dual goals—inform about what happened and cue how to feel about it.
– Headline lab: same event, two frames
– Headline A: “Hundreds of students gather to demand action on university budget cuts.â€�
– Inferred “good guysâ€�: often read as students (language suggests justice-seeking and collective legitimacy).
– Cue words/phrases: “hundredsâ€� (breadth of support), “demand actionâ€� (justice/agency), explicit reason (“budget cutsâ€�) frames a cause.
– Headline B: “Student protests disrupt campus life for third straight day.â€�
– Inferred “bad guysâ€�: often read as students (nuisance frame).
– Cue words/phrases: “disruptâ€� (negative, inconvenient), “for third straight dayâ€� (persistence framed as ongoing disturbance), omission of reason (no cause/context provided).
– Comparative insight:
– Same event; shifting word choice and context inclusion/exclusion recasts protagonists/antagonists.
– Explicit cause and justice language vs. nuisance/disruption language shifts moral valence.
– Duration and scale metrics (“hundreds,â€� “third straight dayâ€�) prime different interpretations.
– Skill application: headline collection and framing inference
– Partner task: find three news headlines (any language); record them.
– In notebooks: for each headline, infer what the author wants you to think/feel about the event based solely on the wording (identify key terms, omissions, and any good/bad cues).
– Logistics: instructor shared the two sample headlines via the class group chat; students started submitting their finds.
Actionable Items
– High priority
– Complete grading of remaining midterms; prepare individualized feedback noting use of frameworks and causal reasoning strengths/needs.
– Collect or review students’ notebook analyses of the three headlines to assess framing identification; consider a brief exit check or collection next class.
– Follow up discreetly with the student who shared a personal family tragedy to offer support and resources if needed.
– Next class planning
– Formalize definitions and distinctions: causation (X leads to Y), mechanisms vs. correlations; framing vs. agenda-setting vs. priming (preview next steps).
– Build a mini-lesson on textual evidence of framing: diction, connotation, imagery, omission, scale/time cues, and good/bad binaries.
– Prepare a more nuanced headline set (less obvious framing) for guided practice; include conflicting frames from different outlets on the same event.
– Create a short analytic template for headline dissection (what happened, key words, implied good/bad, missing context, predicted reader reaction).
– Course logistics and continuity
– Note absences (Alma, Beck) and share materials/expectations; provide makeup guidance for the framing exercises.
– Ensure all students are in the group chat and can access shared examples and instructions.
Homework Instructions:
NO HOMEWORK
All assigned tasks were in-class activities only (e.g., “in your notebooks… think about one piece of media,� “find a partner,� and “with your partner… find three articles… In your notebooks… write about the framing�), and the instructor explicitly said, “this is how we’re going to be spending our remaining class time,� with no out-of-class submission or due date mentioned.