The False Equivalency Trap: Journalism and the Conflict Frame

B.F. Battistoli

Abstract:Our planet is facing environmental challenges of a magnitude unseen in the 200,000+ years of human ascendancy on its surface. It is widely predicted and generally agreed that during this century, anthropogenic climate change will create conditions that necessitate the largest human migrations in history. Some of these changes are occurring gradually, such as rising sea levels and dwindling supplies of fresh water, allowing time for warning and preparation. Others, such as hurricanes and floods, occur with little notice. These climate-driven events have their greatest effect on disadvantaged populations.

Drought, famine and war are now causing the largest displacement and migration of people since World War II. The continuing social and political effects of these migrations are contributing to an unstable geopolitical environment that threatens the cooperative liberal democratic alliances that have helped prevent another global war. The rise of populism in the U.S. and Europe adds to the instability.

Journalists are trying to meet these 21^st-century environmental and political challenges with 20^th-century norms and practices. The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics calls on journalists to “seek truth and report it,” and objectivity in the conduct of that search is highly prized. Journalists have widely adopted the “conflict frame” as a vehicle to satisfy the demand for objectivity, presenting voices from “both sides” of an issue, a device that reduces the complexity of an issue to only two views while ignoring other valuable perspectives.

The conflict frame creates a “false equivalency,” in which fringe voices are presented as the equals of experts. Climate-change deniers debate climate scientists, creationists argue with geneticists, and uber-nationalists confront diplomats. Uber- and alt- views are normalized, facts are elusive, and the line between opinion and fact and opinion is erased.

Using a mixed-methods approach of framing theory and media effects, this study examines the use of the conflict frame in covering environmental and political stories in the 12 months of 2016 by journalists in three major publications: The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. It models the architecture of the informational structure created by the conflict frame, and analyzes its effects on the communication process.