FrameLab 2024: Big News and a reader poll

Happy New Year!

This will be a critical year for democracy and freedom. In response, FrameLab will be stepping up its game. This starts by bringing you more frequent analysis of political messages, metaphors and moral meta-narratives.

FrameLab exists because the journalism establishment generally sticks to a superficial view of politics. Reporters cover personalities, talking points and policies. But they rarely talk about the metaphorical and moral structures underlying our politics. These deeper structures are more powerful than any party, politician or policy. And without understanding these deeper structures, you can’t really understand politics.

At FrameLab, we don’t do hot takes. We prefer deep takes. Our goal is to say important things that aren’t being said. In an age of weaponized dis/misinformation, we aim to arm everyday citizens with advanced knowledge of how propaganda works.

FrameLab is Free — but paid subscribers make our work possible. Please consider joining hundreds of fellow readers in becoming a paid subscriber. The choice is yours!

First up: We’ll start with our new series, Moral Warfare 101. This series of brief essays will provide a crash course on political framing. Then it will evolve into a rolling analysis of frames and counter-frames in the politics of 2024. (Link: Moral Warfare 101)

More Big News: FrameLab will be adding more expert communicators to our roster of writers. We’ll be inviting some of the smartest people we know to contribute pieces that illuminate the strategy and structure of political communications. We want to create a wider conversation across the full range of issues. More to come!

Your Thoughts, Please: As we ramp up the newsletter, we want to hear from  subscribers. Our question is simple:

We know our readers are busy people who probably read many things every day. So we want to make sure we time our publication appropriately. Please weigh in!

Hope and Fear: Like many of you, we enter 2024 with a mix of hope and fear.

This year will bring an unprecedented information war aimed at pushing the United States into authoritarianism. And this latest threat just adds to the many other worries — like war, global warming, poverty and the coordinated attack on freedom around the world.

It can feel overwhelming. Yet we must remember that things can get better, and they must get better. There’s too much at stake. And by caring — by using our minds, our voices and our power as citizens to work for change — we can rise to the many challenges facing us.

We’ve done it before, and we can do it again. Never doubt that empathy, care and action can make an important difference in the world.

It won’t be easy. But it will be possible — as long as we do our best in 2024.

Here we go!

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