Outlet assessments: Framing and Emotiveness

One of the strange things about the news is that the same event can be described very differently across outlets.

One outlet might focus on the economic fallout of a development, another might focus on the human-cost, and another still on the geopolitical context behind it. And all that is before we look at the language used, which can vary widely.

In our Daily Briefings, we assess articles against three dimensions: framing, emotiveness, and the emphasis of the article.

So, in each of our briefings, you’ll see something like: 

Outlet framings

• BBC News - Framing: Political; Emotiveness: 1/5; Emphasis on the institutional effects of the vote. 

• Daily Mail - Framing: Adversarial; Emotiveness: 3/5; Emphasis on critical views of the MPs involved. 

This helps you to quickly see how different outlets present the same news, and gives you more information should you wish to read their linked articles.

Read on to understand more about our Framing and Emotiveness scoring.

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What we mean by “framing”

Framing refers to the angle through which a story is told.

Even when the underlying facts are identical, different outlets often choose to emphasise different aspects of an event.

A government decision, for example, might be presented primarily as:

• a policy announcement

• a political dispute

• an international development

• a conflict or escalation

• an event affecting people or communities

None of these descriptions is necessarily wrong, but they do reflect different editorial priorities.

To make this visible at a glance, we assign each article in the briefing a single dominant framing label. 

Our framing labels are:

• Neutral - straightforward factual reporting with minimal narrative emphasis

• Institutional - focus on official decisions, government actions, or legal processes

• Political - emphasis on political strategy, criticism, or party dynamics

• Geopolitical - focus on international relations or global strategic implications

• Conflict - emphasis on confrontation, military activity, or escalating tensions

• Human-impact - focus on effects on people, communities, or individuals

• Economic - emphasis on markets, prices, or financial consequences

• Adversarial - emphasis on accusations, disputes, or blame between actors

• Alarm - dramatic framing emphasising danger, crisis, or disruption

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What we mean by “emotiveness”

Alongside framing, we also include an emotiveness score. This reflects how emotionally charged the language of an article is.

Different outlets often describe the same event with very different levels of intensity. One headline might read “fire disrupts rail services”, while another might describe “chaos as inferno rips through station”.

Both refer to the same underlying event, but the tone is clearly different. 

To capture this difference, we score each article on a simple five-point scale:

0 - purely factual language

1 - neutral reporting tone

2 - mildly emotive wording

3 - clearly emotive language

4 - highly emotive phrasing

5 - sensational or extreme rhetoric

Emotional language has effects on people; we're all emotional beings. Understanding how an article might affect you before reading it gives you additional agency on how you consume news.