2 Sense-making in dynamic action
Section 1 ended by pointing out that, in ordinary life, the process of framing is never static because sense-making frames may at any time change. Next, you will complete some activities involving moving images. This section is based on a 1986 advert for The Guardian newspaper entitled ‘Points of View’. As you will see, the advert takes advantage of the fact that dynamic frames shape sense-making by manipulating the viewer’s perspective, or ‘point of view’, on objects and events.
As with Section 1, the activities in this section will guide you in developing theoretical insights. You will also be introduced to the concept of symbolism: in Section 2.2, you will explore how changing (or downright manipulating) a frame is possible because frames draw on culturally shared symbolic resources for communication.
Activity 3 Frames are core to sense-making
Task 1
Watch the ‘Points of View’ advert. Try to focus on how and why your perception of what happens in the advert changes as you watch it. In other words, pay attention to any transformative changes in your sense-making.
Task 2
Now that you have watched the advert, spend some time noting down some of your reflections on the video. You will analyse the advert in more detail in the next activity, so focus on your immediate thoughts for now. You can use the following questions to prompt your thinking.
- How would you describe the event you were shown in the video? In other words, what would your definition of the situation you saw unfold be?
Discussion
The video shows one man rescuing another from beneath a falling pile of bricks. This is the event, and we would define it as something like: ‘Thanks to quick reactions and bravery, one man rescues another from being hit by falling bricks on a street’.
- Did your understanding of what was going on in this scene (i.e. your definition of the situation) change? If so, at what points during the video did you notice these changes?
Discussion
We on the course team would answer: ‘Yes, our understanding of what was going on changed.’ When we see the first man (who turns out to be the rescuer), we are not sure what he is doing. He appears to be in a hurry, and there is a hint that he might be fleeing from something unseen. Perhaps he has been up to no good?
Then, from the second camera angle, we can see that this first man is running directly towards and reaching out to grab at a second, smartly dressed man (who he eventually rescues). Here, we get a more definite impression that the first man is up to no good – it seems as if he is about to steal the second man’s briefcase.
It is only in the third and final scene, which shows yet a further camera angle, that we see the full story, and the event turns out to be an act of rescue.
- Do you think you were engaging in second-order sense-making (i.e. sense-making about how the characters in the video were making sense) as you watch the video? In which case, can you describe this? Was your changing definition of the situation part of this sense-making?
Discussion
Our answer to this on the course team is ‘yes’: as we watched the video, we felt that we were engaging in second-order sense-making. For example, in the first part of the video, we thought that the first man was escaping from some undefined situation. We attributed these intentions of escape to him.
In the second scene, our view of his sense-making changed – we thought of the first man as having the intention of robbing the second man. Also, we noticed that the second man clearly appeared to be surprised and perhaps scared of the first man running towards him. Here, therefore, we also made certain assumptions about how this second man was feeling and thinking. At this point, from the perspective of our second-order sense-making, the scene involved a man with criminal intent and a scared victim.
However, the sense we made of this event changed completely in the third scene. Here, we attributed only good intentions to the first man – he intended to save the second man. In fact, we made sense of the first man as being quite quick thinking and brave. The second man was probably still scared but, as soon as the bricks fell, we think he would have been enormously grateful. We didn’t know quite what to make of the bystander's thoughts or feelings. Perhaps she was trying to make sense of the situation as we were.
Clearly, the ‘Points of View’ advert is designed to be deceptive to make a point about the dangers of reaching premature conclusions about people’s motives. It achieves this deception by offering different camera angles. Much like the images of Serena Williams that you saw in Activity 1, these camera angles offer a limited frame to the viewer. Thus, as each frame changes, so too does the sense-making of the observer. In the next activity in the next section, you will go into greater depth about how these sense-making effects are created.
OpenLearn - Social psychology: sense-making in crises
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