Patricia Crespo |
Madrid (EFE).- The language that is used determines the vision of the world that one has. Politicians know this well, accustomed to applying linguistic frameworks to capture the mind of the voter. The ‘caste’, the ‘sanchismo’ or the ‘cowardly right’ are examples of these terms that dot the speeches of politicians and that are later reproduced, over and over again, by the media and citizens.
“A good framework or framing has to appeal to an idea, deep and easy to understand. They are metaphors that work very well in the collective mind. The collective unconscious captures them and it seems that they are common sense,” Miguel del Fresno, an expert in online social research and sociologist at Uned, told EFE.
The success of the caste of the young Podemos
For Del Fresno, the term ‘caste’, started to be used by a newborn Podemos in 2014, reached the category of success at the moment it was repeated even by those who should not repeat it, their political adversaries.
Repetition and not evoking the opponent’s framework are some of the basic rules for applying these lexical hooks, which serve to frame a part of reality, to build it.
Luis Arroyo, president of the Ateneo de Madrid and political consultant, insists on the importance of choosing words, because they make people perceive reality in one way or another. “People – he explains – are, for example, more in favor of the voluntary termination of pregnancy than of abortion.”
Beyond the “so Hindu” concept of ‘caste’, which represented the “battle of the people against the powerful”, both experts review other examples of the framing technique, one of whose greatest references is the influential American linguist George Lakoff.
The superhero government and its social shield
The term ‘social shield’, used a lot by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, is an example of good framing. “It is the superhero government that provides a shield through its measures against the crisis and uncertainty,” says Arroyo, who points out that although it is not as well known as others, this framework is beginning to work.
It is also good, in his opinion, the appeal of the Government to the “middle and working classes.” “Socks because 90% of the population considers themselves middle class, and workers because there is an abundance of the progressive, working-class part, which must also be taken care of.”
Sanchismo, the enemy of Spain
On the opposite side we find ‘sanchismo’, which is an expression widely used by the opposition leader, Alberto Núñez-Feijóo.
For Arroyo, the use of this term is a “great success” by Sánchez’s enemies. “It is Sánchez, it is not the PSOE. I understand that you are a PSOE voter, because you are good people, but Sánchez?… Sánchez is the worst, he is the enemy of Spain, who only wants to stay in the seat. Therefore, our attack is not against the PSOE, it is against sanchismo”, this expert recounts with irony.
A framework that, however, for Del Fresno, there is nothing wrong with it. “It could also be used from the opposite side, with a positive orientation.”
In the last face-to-face in the Senate between Sánchez and the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, he used the word ‘sanchismo’ up to six times. The president, for his part, referred to the “middle and working classes” five times.
The funny ‘cowardly right’
Where there is unanimity that it is an effective framework, “fantastic” in Arroyo’s opinion, is on the ‘cowardly right’, used, although less now, by Vox.
“It’s funny, derogatory. I think it comes from, if I remember correctly, from Federico Jiménez Losantos, who is a headline and frame-generating machine. It’s Rajoy, Pablo Casado; against the tough, the brave: who are Vox, these hunters and strong men ”, says the president of the Ateneo.
help and freedom
“Communism or freedom”, one of the campaign slogans of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is also a framework that has proven effective.
“The success above all was the word freedom, because at a time when people are locked up in their homes (in the pandemic) the fact that she allowed the cafeterias to open allowed Madrid to be positioned as a redoubt of freedom precisely, it was very difficult to contradict him”, stresses Arroyo, for whom it was brilliant even though it was full of traps.
It is a “bipolar framing”, supports Del Fresno, because it encourages partisanism and polarization.
The ‘fetal heartbeat’, ‘Iberian exception’ and its opposite ‘Iberian scam’, the new ‘ruthless capitalism’ and the eighties ‘crony capitalism’, examples of framed good and bad dot the speeches of Spanish politicians.
“Power consists of who has the ability to define reality,” says Del Fresno. The success belongs to those who master the framing and the story to do it, and who manages to get people to end up using the term on a day-to-day basis, unconsciously, as has happened with the ‘welfare state’, Arroyo ditch.