The second session on this final morning at the 2026 International Communication Association conference in Cape Town is on framing and politics, and begins with a paper by Ying Qi Pan, whose focus is on media framing in the context of gender equality. This matters because media framing shapes how people understand social issues.
This often works through advantage or disadvantage framing, which respectively emphasise the systemic privilege of advantaged groups or highlight the underrepresentation of disadvantaged groups. Research to date focusses mainly on majority groups; there is relatively less evidence on the minority groups involved.
Gender is a salient social identity here, and gender inequality is encountered frequently in everyday life contexts. Gender findings are mixed: when women are exposed to advantage framings, they are often encouraged to mobilise, while men confronted by such frames often react defensively.
Media frames also suggest causality: they point to who bears responsibility, and highlight what should be done. This involves an attribution of responsibility of both causes and solutions.
This project conducted a first study: first, it focussed on some 300 c female participants in the US who were asked to read articles on workplace leadership and pay gaps; they felt that disadvantage framing focussed on the experiences of women, and advantage framing on those of men. This did not directly shift attributions of responsibility, but gender equality action support intentions increased.
A second study will refine these stimuli, and explicitly test for dominant and subordinate groups. This will work with members of the general population, and also explore the role of in-group identification.
