Heaney and Rojas Framing Section Discussion

Place and Framing in Social Movements - Group 4 

Section: "Veterans and Military Families Take Center Stage" and "The Local Community within the Coalition"

Veterans and Military Families Take Center Stage

Summary: What the Author is Saying....

Veterans being used as prop pieces to transform the phrase of: 'Support the Troops'

pg. 253: "One of the things that I've learned is that when the shit gets heavy and they call you unpatriotic, they love to get a veteran out in front, because it is hard to criticize you."

pg. 253: "We can't allow ourselves to be put into a position of being window dressing for peace movement."
- Even though they knew they were being used, they had hesitation.

Key Term:
Stating/Appropriate Acting: Defining when he uses the term 'appropriate actors' in reference to the veterans; strategy and tactics (pg. 253)

Argument: The rally being an opportune moment to portray themselves in a positive light rather than be seen as aggressors essentially alienating the veterans. It's very productive in terms of effectiveness in that they are targeting the audience in familiar territory (residence, homes, neighborhoods).

Purpose: Importance of place in protest and the importance of framing; being very specific about their frame (veterans are number 1) and their place of protest backs up that importance and overall goal of their protest.

The Local Community within the Coalition 

Summary: Activists utilized the antiwar rally of 2005 as an opportunity to bring to light other various injustices of things like: Capitalism, Southern racism, homophobia, religious freedom for Muslims, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, etc.. An alliance between local activist, national antiwar leaders, and OVMF's allowed the event to be focused on supporting troops.

Key Term:
Alternative Framing: The alternative focus of the protest (Identity). For example, honing the protest on the troops instead of the many other injustices involved in the troops (ex: Capitalism, Southern racism, homophobia, religious freedom, etc...) 

Symbolism: The overall message behind the picture

Argument: "... no one set of actors can control exclusively the meaning of  a place and demonstrates the limits of what a movement can accomplish by symbolic manipulation." (pg. 245).
- The assessment of how successful the protest was and why certain aspect of these protests may be more unsuccessful than successful

Purpose: "... no one set of actors can control exclusively the meaning of a place and demonstrates the limits of what a movement can accomplish by symbolic manipulation." (pg. 254)