Strategically Communicating

When analyzing 667 war photographs, 39 resort menus, or 93 BP press releases you need to categorize your data.  In biology this has already been done, and it can be easily replicated by using a dichotomous key.  A dichotomous key is a series of yes or no questions that are used to describe something.  If you were looking at trees, one of the first questions you would ask to narrow the tree species is “Does this tree have flowers or cones?”  This would divide all the trees in the world into two categories: conifers and angiosperms.

When analyzing media from a recent event such as the Gulf Cost oil spill, resort menus from the 2011 World Best Hotels website, or any other media that you are the first to explore you need to create a  language. This language frames the world you are studying and is used to communicate to other explorers.   By creating frames you can study how media is used and if it was successful.  If you are a good explorer, many other researchers will use your frames for their studies and follow in your footsteps.