The first step in communication through the generations was the drawing of pictures to convey ideas.  An element of the environment was selected and depicted as a two-dimensional image.  A portion of the world became framed and fixed in time. The process of framing, that is to say, deciding where to place the boundaries, is a fundamental apect of human behaviour.   In this respect, frames are used to construct a subjective picture of reality, selecting and organizing a confusing flood of information in a way that make sense to the presenters and their audiences.  Judgments concerning the worth of things, big or little, depend on the feelings the things arouse in us. Where we judge a thing to be precious in consequence of the idea we frame it.  This is only because the idea is itself is associated already with a feeling. If we were radically feelingless, and if ideas were the only things our mind could entertain, we should lose all our likes and dislikes at a stroke, and be unable to point to any one situation or experience in life more valuable or significant than any other.

A frame makes the audience think of reality as fixed, as something we can all agree on.  Frames are not consciously or deliberately constructed or noticed, but operate as underlying mind sets that prompt one to notice elements that are familiar and ignore those that are different. Frames are almost entirely implicit and taken for granted. They do not appear to either presenters or audience as social constructions but as primary attributes of events that reporters are merely reflecting. Frames make the world look natural. They determine what is selected, what is excluded, what is emphasized.

Framing is a fundamental attribute of human knowing in the process of turning information into knowledge.  Items of information are gathered together according to the attitude of the gatherer to make a discrete package of knowledge.  In the form of text, the information cluster may be called a topic or chapter.  These notes on cultural ecology are an example of this process of framing.  The placing of frames in relation to each other to point to their connections are the final step in the presentation of a finished knowledge system as a chart or book.

Much of our information is presented as framed pictures, although it was not until the 14th century that the rectangular picture frame as a physical means of separation of pictures from the contemporary world of the spectator became a generally accepted convention.  Struggles of artists over framing decide which of the many happenings of their time will be awarded significance and the viewer will enter the frame into a space with a hint of mystery. On a path there is always the possibility of discovery, and since the beginning of painting we have set off hopefully on them. In the real world, one travels paths in time, with life changing continuously along the way. But in a painted frame time can be caught, charged full of potential. And if the painting is human scale the viewer is drawn to walk on to the path and be a part of this timeless moment.

Since the Renaissance we have lived and formed opinions about culture and its values in relation to a two-dimensional packaged world, but framing has now extended to all media.

The media have become critical arenas for the struggle between reality and its interpretation by presenter and audience . Social movements have increasingly focused on the media since it plays such an influential role in assigning importance to public issues. But gaining attention alone is not what a social movement wants. The real battle is over whose interpretation, whose framing of reality, gets the floor.

Most information we receive is already framed: friends offer opposing accounts of a feud; TV, radio, and newspapers interpret events that we do not experience directly. Even when we are actual witnesses, we are not privileged with the truth. Who we are—our class, gender, race, past experience, values, and interests—all come into play when we try to make sense of what’s happening. Yet it is common to downplay framing as a value-laden ordering process.

We trust the news media may make mistakes, but assume they largely present reality “the way it is”. Those of us who question the naturalness of the packaged world are ignored or attacked, rarely believed.

The news media make every effort to promote this view by trying to appear neutral and objective. But the writers and editors who frame the news are anything but objective.

Far from being an objective list of facts, a news story results from multiple subjective decisions about whether and how to present happenings to media audiences. The editors’ and reporters’ own perspectives, including their notions of audience interests, guide this process. As a result, stories covering the same happening, or the same scientific facts, may vary dramatically.