e devices used to frame are just as enigmatic as the framing effects that result. Although the structural elements of a news story, and the way in which they are ordered, can both function as framing devices (Tankard, 2001) and affect the frames that story conveys (van Dijk, 1988), little to no research has examined how journalists with differing levels of experience structure stories in traditional and online news contexts.
The lexical, grammatical and syntactical choices a journalist makes, such as writing a headline, lead or body of a news story, make up a schema that, while shaped by rules and conventions, can function as a framing device itself (van Dijk, 1988). The structural elements of a news story are not only framing devices, but also tools for journalists and editors to make their frames communicable. Many studies have shown the psychological relevance of framing, but few have looked at the seemingly minor structural choices journalists make under deadlines that may have comparable framing effects. While framing is often seen as a hegemonic and manipulative tool, a copy editor’s seemingly harmless shifting of paragraphs or removing of sentences can have a similar impact as a media mogul. However, both studies that explore the institutional, professional and cultural influences on news production and the journalistic routines and rules concerning gatekeeping consider the form, structure and style of news stories byproducts, not products of both macro or micro-sociological influences.