What term describes the process of giving a news story a specific context or background?

• A. Priming
• B. Sourcing
• C. Contextualizing
• D. Framing

Answer: (D)

Framing is the process of presenting a news story through a particular lens, choosing which facts to highlight and how to connect them, thereby giving the story a specific context or background. This shapes how audiences interpret the issue, what they see as causes, and what solutions seem appropriate. For example, portraying a health policy as a government efficiency issue versus a personal responsibility issue leads to different interpretations of who should act and how. Priming focuses on triggering certain thoughts for future judgments rather than shaping the current story’s interpretive angle. Sourcing is about where the information comes from, and contextualizing adds background without necessarily setting the interpretive frame. So framing best describes giving a story its specific context.